New Horizons: a collection of LSK AUs
by Lucathia Rykatu
Summary: A collection of LSK AU stories for the Whole New World challenge. 4) That Lollipop's Lingering Taste: Grisia accepts Charlotte's lunch invitation. 5) That Person Now Returned: Grisia reunites with Roland before events of v1.
1. That Day Back Then

New Horizons: a collection of LSK AUs

by Lucathia

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own the Legend of Sun Knight and make no profit from writing this.

 **Notes:** This is a collection of my responses to the Whole New World Alternate Reality/Changing Canon Challenge on Dreamwidth. There are 15 prompts in all. I'll be writing standalone oneshots to fulfill each prompt.

* * *

 **That Day Back Then**

 _That day back then, Grisia goes to search for his big sister. At a pivotal moment, Grisia makes up his mind. All it took was a nervous habit. Everything changes. Alternative take on a canon event. For the prompt, "Altered Past."  
_

* * *

"Bye! Remember to wait here for me. I'll be back tomorrow!"

A blond boy waved enthusiastically to his friend, who was by the side of the fountain. Said friend glanced down at her own hand and then raised it woodenly. She looked back and forth between her departing friend and her hand. With one last look at her hand, she gave it a tentative wave, as if she was not used to the action.

The boy hurried to where he was meeting his teacher. It wouldn't do to make someone as scary as his teacher wait.

Unfortunately for the boy, his teacher Neo was on time for once. As expected, he wasn't the least bit happy. He had his arms crossed and feet tapping. All that was missing was a scowl, which would have been present if he weren't the "benevolent' Sun Knight, who was always ready with a smile.

Truthfully, it was perhaps much scarier to see a fist coming your way while the person swinging the fist had on a wide smile. One had to wonder, with such actions and words, if there was even a need to keep smiling, as his "benevolent" image was definitely not intact.

"You're late, Grisia! You're the one who wanted to look for your big sister. Where the hell were you?"

Grisia winced and rubbed his head. He quickly cast a healing spell to chase away the pain, but promptly frowned and winced again when he touched his head. He had already cast the spell multiple times earlier in the day and would now have to suffer through the pain. He mumbled, "I was with a friend."

"A friend?" An elegant eyebrow arched upward. "A friend out here? Is he not part of the Church?"

Grisia shook his head. "I just met her today." When there was no response from his teacher, he added, "She's nice."

"A girl?" His teacher finally asked in disbelief.

"Yup, I saved her from some bullies!" Grisia said proudly, without any mention of how he'd ended up getting pummeled along with her until the bullies grew bored. That totally still counted as saving her. He even stood up taller at the thought, face beaming with a large smile.

* * *

Neo's arched eyebrow climbed even higher, nearly disappearing into his bangs. "You? Are you sure it's not the other way around?"

Grisia was no fighter, and he sucked at fighting off bullies. Neo still clearly remembered the state Grisia had been in when he'd gone to ask Grisia why he wanted to become the Sun Knight. Grisia had been in a sorry state then, and he'd gotten two other boys to fight off the bullies instead of winning the battle by himself.

"No way!" Grisia exclaimed and then muttered under his breath, "If I had been saved by a girl, I wouldn't even mention it..."

Grisia's teacher decided to ignore his student's mutterings—mumbling under his breath like that was such a bad habit—instead looking him over, noticing no injuries. However, that wasn't a good indication of whether or not his student had gotten into a scuffle. Although his student sucked at the swordplay part of being a holy knight, he definitely excelled at the holy spells part of being a holy knight. He could have healed all of his own injuries, leaving no evidence of getting beaten up.

There were smudges of dirt on his clothes though, and was that a rip in his sleeves?

While Neo found it difficult to believe, it was possible that Grisia _had_ saved a girl from bullies this time, given that there was no one else around to do the work for him.

However, it irked Neo that Grisia was not even a teen yet and was already such a womanizer! That really wouldn't do. He wasn't raising a Storm Knight here, no matter his own womanizing ways. It wasn't like he needed a miniature version of himself. Neo quickly said, "So you saved a girl, Grisia? That is commendable. That leads perfectly into the next lesson."

"A lesson, Teacher? But I thought we're going to find my big sister now."

"Child, one must be ready to learn at all times," Neo made up on the spot. "Remember this well. The Sun Knight, as the spokesperson of the God of Light, is entirely devoted to the God of Light and must not show any interest in women."

"Um, okay?" Grisia answered.

Neo, noticing Grisia's confusion, realized that perhaps it was too early to teach Grisia about something like this. _I'll shelve this conversation until later... maybe when he's fourteen. Wouldn't it be hilarious to teach him to look at girls through the corner of his eyes instead of directly at them?_ Neo nodded. Fourteen sounded just about right. Puberty and all. _Ick._

* * *

The neighborhood where Grisia's big sister's house was located was average at best. Grisia had told Neo that his big sister dressed in pretty clothes and had pale skin, which hinted that perhaps she was a noble of some sort who didn't have to toil in the sun, or who had a great facial regimen, but her choice of residence sure didn't say the same.

Neo had stopped counting how many times Grisia had come to check the house, always finding no one there. Each visit saddened Grisia, but he never gave up on searching for his big sister. Neo had decided to come search with him this time. After all, he wasn't a kidnapper like Eller! He was going to find Grisia's big sister for him. She might even be a pretty one.

As luck would have it, this trip proved different from the previous ones, perhaps because of Neo's blinding presence, announcing to everyone around that he was someone of importance. Just the act of walking down the sparse streets of the neighborhood caused plenty of heads to turn their way. They hadn't even reached the house when they were "found."

But, it wasn't Grisia's big sister who found them. Not unless Grisia's big sister was a little girl.

Without any warning, something dark shot out at Neo, too quick for Neo to determine what it was. But that mattered little, as Neo had always been the type to "strike first and ask questions later." He did exactly that, sword pulled out to slash at the incoming threat, cleaving what was actually a magical attack down the middle. The dark energy, now deflected, instead hit the walls and left behind a black, charred surface.

It was fortunate for Neo's opponent that what had been thrown at him was a magical attack instead of the person herself, as whatever came in the path of Neo's sword would most definitely end up split in half.

"Give him back!" came the voice of a little girl, followed by another blast of dark element in the shape of blades. Her blades were precise, aimed only at Neo, but when he chopped at her attack again, the deflected blades nearly hit Grisia, causing the girl to gasp. The attacks stopped altogether. Neo narrowed his eyes at that.

He kept his sword pointed at her, his hand tingling. Little girl or not, and whether the attacks had stopped or not, she was not to be underestimated. The fact that she was a little girl and proficient at the dark element reminded Neo of Pink all too much, and that was a bad sign. He pushed Grisia behind him.

The girl growled at that, dark element rising around her, as if accentuating each of her words. "Give. Him. Back!"

"Is that all you know how to say?" Neo taunted. "I'm tired of hearing it!"

"Teacher!" Grisia gasped, peeking out from behind Neo's cape. Neo tried to push him back behind him again, but Grisia ducked out of the way, poking his head out on Neo's opposite side, much to his frustration. "I know her! She's little big sis!"

"Child, what in the world are you talking about? She's a necromancer!" Neo shouted and grabbed Grisia by the collar, picking him up and tossing him to the back like a stray kitten. Grisia even landed on his feet, but with one hand steadying himself on the ground, it was not quite a graceful landing. He still needed more practice in that department.

Truthfully, it wasn't like Neo knew for certain that the little girl was a necromancer, but knowing one such necromancer made it very easy for that leap of logic.

The little girl didn't deny it either. Either she was one, or she just didn't care about what Neo thought she was. All she did was shout, "Give him back to me!" Neo was really tired of hearing that, but this time, she demonstrated that she did have more to her vocabulary, as what she shouted next was, "You kidnapper!"

"Nonsense!" Neo snapped. He was _not_ a kidnapper, thank you very much! That was Eller, who had totally kidnapped the bread delivery boy! Grisia had registered for _and_ taken part in the Sun Knight selections. It wasn't Neo's fault that they were having so much trouble finding Grisia's big sister to inform her of Grisia's new status as the Sun Knight-in-training.

Suddenly, Grisia gasped again. Neo glanced down, only to see Grisia darting past him. He hurriedly reached out, trying to grab the boy, but he slipped out of his grasp, running straight at a woman who had just shown up behind the little girl. She wore a simple dress that Neo supposed could be considered "pretty," especially when it accented her shapely figure so well. Along with the pale skin she had, Neo figured that this had to be Grisia's so-called "big sister."

Although she _was_ a pretty one, something didn't sit right with Neo. While Neo wasn't the best at magic and anything that even remotely had to do with magic, he was still the Sun Knight. As the Sun Knight, he had the finest blade he'd ever wielded at his disposal—the Divine Sun Sword. It was a holy blade whose affinity directly opposed the dark element, and thus the blade always felt somehow different in his hands in the presence of the dark element, undead creatures, and the like, as if the blade itself wished for Neo to start a bloodbath to eliminate all of that.

A tingling sensation ran up Neo's arms. The sword had reacted to the little girl. Now, it was reacting to the "big sister" as well. He narrowed his eyes again. Meanwhile, the little girl stood between them like a guard dog, hand held up to the sides to block Neo's way.

Grisia threw himself at the woman, happily shouting, "Big sister!"

She caught Grisia and said something that made Neo's eyebrows shoot up into his bangs. "My little king, where have you been?"

 _Little king? What in the world? It can't be that Grisia is royalty?_ Neo found it hard to believe. While Grisia did look the part, especially when he was clothed in the uniform of the young Sun Knight with his golden threads and blue silks, when all was said and done, he was just a snot-faced brat. Then again, all royals started off as snot-faced brats, and most never grew out of it, so Grisia wasn't all that different from them in that sense.

Neo eyed the girl and the woman. Then, he abruptly shouted, "Grisia, out of the way!"

Having been subject to Neo's brand of teaching made Grisia react right away to his teacher's command. He jumped out of the way, not a second too late, as Neo had shoved the little girl to the side, his sword flying straight at the woman. Grisia would not have come out of that unscathed.

However, Grisia's eyes widened at the sight, and he rushed forward in horror without a care for his own safety, shouting, "Big sister!"

The Divine Sun Sword pierced into a sudden black shield that had appeared before the woman, courtesy of the little girl. She was sprawled on the floor but had her hand held up. The shield was likely formed of the dark element, as the Divine Sun Sword cut through it like butter. The shield was only able to mitigate the force, slowing the blade's thrust. It did not actually block the sword. The woman gasped in pain and looked down. The tip of the blade had pierced her abdomen. Neo ruthlessly stabbed forward, but the little girl suddenly dispelled the shield outward, forcing him to withdraw his sword.

"Big sister!" Grisia shrieked and hurried to gather holy element. Before anyone present could stop him, Grisia had already cast his quickest healing spell ever... only to cause his big sister to scream in pain. She thrashed and doubled over, hugging herself.

Grisia's eyes widened. He snatched his hand back in horror. It hadn't even been a strong healing spell, given his depleted reserves. "W-what's going on?"

Neo's face was grim. "Grisia, come over here."

Unexpectedly, Grisia shook his head. "No... Teacher, you stabbed her! Why?"

 _Pale skin from not having to work in the sun? As if! Even if she works all her life out in the sun, she won't tan. But considering what she is, there was no chance from the start that she'd ever be out working in the sun._ Neo simply said, "She's an undead creature."

"That can't be true!" Grisia claimed.

"Your healing spell clearly hurt her," Neo countered. "I don't know what kind of undead creature she is, but she definitely is one. She can't be your big sis—"

"Teacher!" Grisia cried out.

While they had been arguing, the little girl wasted no time to blast Neo with dark element. He swung the Divine Sun Sword to cut through the attack once again, but he had been too focused on Grisia that part of the attack slipped through, hitting him in the shoulder. Neo grunted in pain. Blood stained his ripped sleeve and slowly blossomed.

"Grisia, come over here," the little girl parroted Neo's words.

Grisia, stuck in the middle, simply didn't seem to understand what was going on. He shook his head and said, much like he had asked Neo not a moment earlier, "No, you hurt Teacher! Why?" He looked back and forth between Neo, the woman, and the little girl. He didn't take a single step toward any of them. He nibbled on his lips. Perhaps he did it a bit too hard, for a spot of blood appeared on his lips, and that was all it took to change everything.

All of a sudden, Grisia jerked his head, staring at the blood on Neo's arm. By now, some of it was even dripping on the ground.

Then, Grisia swiveled his head to stare at his big sister, who was injured as well, and it was no small injury either to get stabbed by the Divine Sun Sword. But, there was no blood in sight.

The little girl answered, "Why? It's because he stole you from me!"

Neo immediately growled, "I did not! It's official that Grisia is going to be the next Sun Knight!"

"The Sun Knight? How can that be?" the little girl said, incredulous. "My child can't be the Sun Knight! He's going to be the demon king!"

" _Your_ child? The demon king? Just what fantasy are you dreaming up?" Neo looked at her snidely. "Just how old are you to call him a child? You..." Neo came to a sudden realization. "You're an undying lich, just like Pink, aren't you? You old hag! I won't let you harm Grisia!"

The little girl narrowed her eyes at Neo. "I would never harm him! You're more likely to hurt him, especially since you're in cahoots with Pink!"

"I am not!"

In the midst of their argument, in a life-changing moment, Grisia whispered, "Big sister, are you really an undead creature?"

The woman could barely speak or move. She jerked her head in a nod. "I am... a demoness... my little king..."

Grisia, mind made up, spun around and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Stop fighting already!"

Neo and the little girl both froze. When they turned, they were greeted by the sight of Grisia with his hands propped against his waist. To Neo, it was like seeing Grisia in the mantle of the Sun Knight. To the little girl, it was like seeing her child with the authority of the demon king. Both of them felt like chastised children and shut up obediently.

"Teacher, let me ask this again, why did you stab big sister?" Grisia questioned.

"She's an undead creature," Neo said, his answer still the same.

"I know that now. Big sister is a demoness. But that's no reason to stab her! Teacher, you may be the Sun Knight, but going around stabbing defenseless undead creatures is just bullying the weak!"

Neo gaped while the little girl snickered.

Grisia frowned at the little girl. "Little big sis, you too! Let me ask this again, why did you hurt Teacher?"

"He stole you from me," she answered.

Grisia shook his head. "Teacher told the truth. I'm the next Sun Knight. I entered myself into the Sun Knight selections, and I passed! I came back to look for you and big sister, but I couldn't find either of you to tell you."

The little girl gaped while Neo had an "I told you so" expression on his face.

"Child, you can't be the Sun Knight. You're destined to be the demon king," the little girl explained.

"He's not going to be the demon king or evil king or whatever nefarious position you have planned for him!" Neo snapped.

Grisia had told Neo that becoming the Sun Knight would mean that he would have eleven brothers, maybe even twelve. That was what becoming the Sun Knight meant to Grisia. He wouldn't have any of that as the demon king.

"I don't want to be the demon king," Grisia said, just like Neo thought. "I don't want to be evil. I don't want to be alone."

The little girl shook her head. "You are both wrong. I have no nefarious plans. The demon king is even more important than some stupid Sun Knight. The demon king is the savior of the world!"

Both Neo and Grisia looked at her as if she were out of her mind.

The little girl scoffed. "You and your prejudices. Without the demon king, the world would perish. Then, what use would there be for some silly Sun Knight?"

Neo bristled at that.

"I... I don't really understand all of that." Grisia finally said. "But tell me this. Could the demon king heal big sister's injury?"

The little girl blinked. She glanced at the demoness, as if she had only just remembered her now. "Of course, he can do that. You just have to use the dark element." The little girl raised her hand, calling the dark element to it. "Like this."

"Then, why haven't you healed her yet?!" Grisia demanded.

"She's just a demoness!" The little girl retorted. "I can summon another one if you want. No big deal."

"She's big sis! She can't be replaced!" Angry, Grisia stalked forward and held his hand out. He scrunched his face up. At first, nothing happened, perhaps because of how used to the holy element he was by now, but soon afterwards, dark element began gathering into a ball above his hand. "If you're not going to heal her, I will!"

Once again, the little girl gaped. Neo shook his head and came to stand beside her. He said, "You may have adopted him, but you really don't understand him, do you?" He sighed. "He treasures all of his bonds, so don't even think about replacing that demoness with another one. I hate to admit it, but that means I can't just cut the two of you down. So spill already. What in the world is this demon king business, and who the hell are you?"

The little girl said, while staring at her child "healing" the demoness with his first ever attempt at gathering the dark element, "I am Scarlet." Then, she turned to give Neo an unhappy look. "I am the guide to the future demon king." When Neo still didn't look like that told him anything, Scarlet pursed her lips and questioned, "Hasn't your royal family told you anything about the demon king?"

"...No."

Scarlet was rendered speechless.

Compared to the current "royal" in power, perhaps Grisia, a snot-faced brat, according to Neo, would make a better king after all.

* * *

At the side of the fountain, a girl waited. She kicked her feet and stared at the shoes of all of the passersby. Behind her, the water of the fountain created a mist against her back as it splashed downward, and the setting sun that shone through it sometimes formed miniature rainbows. There was one such rainbow now that had found its place on a white boot, but the rainbow soon lost its place on it, as the boot wasn't stationary.

Oh, the boot was getting closer. It was a rather nice boot, and the owner must wipe it a lot, as it was rather clean despite being a white boot. The golden designs on it were a bit familiar, now that she was getting a closer look at it. Wait...

The girl blinked and looked up. A large smile immediately came over her face. "Grisia!"

"Hi, Charlotte!" the owner of the nice white boot said and beamed in return.

"Did you find your big sister?" she asked, since Grisia had run off to look for his big sister the last she had seen him.

Grisia nodded, though his expression changed for a moment, too quick for Charlotte to figure out what was going on in his head. In the end, he simply said, "I did!"

"That's awesome!" Charlotte said. "Do you have time to play now?"

Grisia nodded again. "I do! But only for an hour. I have to meet with some stuck up people later. Next week, more stuck up people are probably going to come too, so I won't have time then."

"Oh, that doesn't sound fun," Charlotte said and frowned, not liking the thought of not being able to see Grisia the following week.

Grisia made a face. "It's not fun at all. But forget about that. I brought some more money! Let's go get a lollipop!"

* * *

"I can't believe the king never told you anything about the demon king," Scarlet said and crossed her arms.

"I can't believe I'm actually believing you about this demon king business," Neo retorted and crossed his arms as well.

"Do your damn research already then. Grisia's future shouldn't be impaired because of _your_ king's mess up," Scarlet snapped.

"That's exactly what I'm trying to do," Neo snapped back. "I care for Grisia too. Get that through your dead brain."

The two of them kept on arguing and were still arguing even by the time Grisia returned. He looked at them bemusedly and turned toward the demoness, who was sitting quietly behind them, doing embroidery on the ripped sleeves of Grisia's outfit from the day before, and asked, "Big sister, have they been squabbling this entire time?"

The demoness nodded. "They have, my little king."

Grisia turned to stare at them again. He tilted his head, placed a finger against his lips in thought, and said, "You know, I hear this is what they call 'arguing like an old married couple!'"

The arguing duo immediately fell silent. They turned to stare at Grisia. Then, they looked at each other in disgust.

"I'm not a cradle-robber!" they shouted at the same time.

Grisia couldn't help it. He burst out in laughter.

"My little king, what amuses you so?" the demoness asked.

Grisia beamed and told her, "I have the biggest and best family ever! I have eleven brothers, Teacher, little big sis, and you. Teacher even feels like a dad and little big sis like a mom. I'm so lucky!"

The demoness smiled. "You deserve the best, my little king." Then, she lifted the shirt she had been working on and asked, "What do you think of this design?"

On one of the sleeves were the words "my little king," and on the other sleeve were the words "my little sun knight."

Grisia protested, "I'm not going to be little forever!" But, he couldn't keep the smile off of his face.

* * *

the end

 **A/N:** At one point, this fic felt like it was just Neo and Scarlet shouting at each other. :'D

As for the future of this Grisia, I imagine that knowing he's a demon king candidate from the start, with Scarlet around to support him and tell them stuff, will mean that he'll have a lot less grief in his life. The unnamed demoness, despite not being powerful, remains Grisia's favorite out of all of Scarlet's summons, and thus she continues to stick by Grisia's side. Even after Scarlet summons stronger undead creatures for Grisia, as she believes that Grisia needs strong underlings to protect and serve him, Grisia still prefers the demoness.


	2. That Which Was Lost

New Horizons: a collection of LSK AUs

by Lucathia

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own the Legend of Sun Knight and make no profit from writing this.

* * *

 **That Which Was Lost**

 _After Grisia was lost with only the Divine Sun Sword left behind, he was never found. Until Lesus comes across an "amnesic" Grisia while evacuating the citizens. AU branching from V4, causing future events to play out differently. For the prompt, "Never Found." hints of Lesus/Grisia_

* * *

"Might I buy you a drink?" I asked.

He angled his body my way, not even giving me a glance. It confirmed what I had been afraid of. He had truly forgotten ( _hasn't he?_ ), or else he never would have dropped the pretense of his eyes being fine, of things being okay.

It was disconcerting.

 _Or, it could be that he..._

"You again?" He made a face. Mug empty, it thumped on the table as he placed it down. "You're not trying to hit on me, are you? Look, first of all, I'm not a girl, and second of all, that's a terribly clichéd pick up line."

I gestured at the empty mug on the table. "Terrible or not, your mug is empty."

"An astounding observation," came his dry retort. "I never would have noticed."

I couldn't help the corner of my lips lifting up at that, even though my heart ached at the same time. _How familiar the banter yet foreign all the same. How has it come to this?_

I shook myself out of my thoughts, waving the bartender over. The bartender gave me a scared look but complied in the end. I could only ignore his obvious fright. "A drink, if you will, for this man here."

"Hey! I didn't say I wanted that drink," he complained.

"Since when have you ever refused a drink, Grisia?" I deliberately asked. _Is there normalcy still to be found?_

At my use of his name, he paused, mouth turning downward, but he gave nothing else away. Instead of commenting about the name drop, he said, "Just because you've been stalking me doesn't mean you know me."

 _Ah, but I do. I did._

Despite what he said, Grisia took me up on that drink, finally knocking some sense into this disorienting world, giving me hope.

* * *

As I walked over, Vidar saluted me and gave me a summary of how the evacuation was coming along. I surveyed the scene, watching our men herd over the refugees from the Kingdom of Kissinger. _Like lost sheep,_ arose an absurd thought that didn't sound like me at all. It sounded more like an observation Grisia would have made. I sobered at the thought. _Lost sheep, huh? We are all... lost sheep._ And I was one of them.

The evacuation was proceeding in the sense that people were following our orders despite not being our citizens, but it wasn't quick enough. The lands of darkness were expanding by the day, and we were already running out of space at several refugee sites.

We really couldn't afford for this stalemate to continue. It was why the Twelve Holy Knights had been sent out to help with the evacuation, with our teachers holding down the fort back at the Holy Temple, though in reality, our main task was to look for our missing leader.

"Arrange for more tents," I told Vidar. "There are still open grounds to the southeast."

Vidar hesitated but ultimately did not question my command. "Yes, Captain!" He hurried off to see to my orders. I understood his hesitation. The southeast was too close to the Kissinger border where the largest lands of darkness were spreading.

However, it was exactly that proximity that would prove useful in hustling over the refugees, giving them a place to rest their feet before we moved them to a more permanent camp. A perfect solution it was not, but in times like these, one couldn't wish for perfection, only sufficiency.

Furthermore, the Cathedral of the Shadow God had divined that the Kissinger border would be the location of the Demon King's birth, and thus it would be the place most in need of evacuation.

Out of the corner of my eye, a flash of blond caught my attention. I jerked my head. _Was that...?_ I scanned the crowds. _I thought I had seen..._

"Captain?" one of my holy knights asked, pulling my attention back.

"It is nothing," I eventually said. A lingering glance showed me nothing that I wanted to see. Blond hair was not uncommon. I had merely gotten my hopes up. "Proceed."

* * *

"You buy me a drink, and you're not even drinking?" Grisia asked, downing his own. "It feels weird if I'm the only one drinking. Creepy even, with you watching me like that."

"I don't drink," I answered simply, the answer coming to me unbidden, eyes still trained on him. _What need is there for wine when I would rather drink in the sight of him instead?_ But perhaps, when it all came down to it, I was just afraid, afraid that I would lose sight of him if I pulled my eyes away even for a second, and he would be gone once more.

He was, thankfully, in good health as far as I could tell, though the loose robes he wore, so strange to see on him, made it difficult to determine if he had lost any weight. His face _was_ , however, thinner than I felt it should be, with an almost imperceivable thread of stress lining his brows. It would be hard to see upon first glance if I weren't so used to looking for tells...

 _If I weren't so used to... looking for tells...?_

He put his drink down. "Seriously? What is someone like you even doing in a tavern then? Don't tell me it was to follow me? Now you're _really_ being stalkerish."

When I didn't answer, his jaw dropped open.

"Really? You're really stalking me? Come on, I already _told_ you! Whitey is my unicorn! I didn't steal him! In fact, he's the one who keeps tagging along. I can't get rid of him even if I wanted to. You can't arrest me for that."

I couldn't help chuckling. "You named a black unicorn Whitey?"

"Hey, I didn't name him. That _is_ his name. He told me."

"The unicorn told you?" I asked dryly.

"Duh, who else could have told me?"

I snorted. His logic was just so _absurd,_ but I wouldn't put it past him to be able to communicate with a unicorn. He, however, interpreted my mirth a completely different way.

He sniffed and turned his head away. "Fine, be that way. It's not like I need you to believe me."

I sobered. _Wasn't there a time when my belief in him mattered more than anything, when he had been so angry that I'd said I believed the evidence over his innocence?_

It felt like ages ago, a nearly forgotten memory. I wasn't even sure if I remembered correctly.

"No, I'm not here about the unicorn."

* * *

I charged forward, dispatching a skeleton that had been chasing after a boy. The boy in question was huddled on the ground, curled up into a ball with his arms hugging his head. When the coast was clear, he lifted an arm and peeked out.

"Stay with the group," I told him.

"M-my friend... she's still out there!" the boy whimpered.

 _So that's why he broke off from the group._

While it was commendable that he wished to save his friend, he was only endangering himself and causing more trouble by going off on his own, something I was all too familiar with regarding a certain someone.

"You'll be doing no one any good if you get yourself killed. Run along now. I'll find her." While a little girl shouldn't be difficult to spot, I still asked to give him the illusion of helping, "What does she look like?"

"Um, she's about this tall," he said, lifting a hand to his chin, "with pigtails. She's wearing a red dress."

I nodded, exchanging a glance with my platoon members to have them take the boy to safety, and for the rest to join me ahead. Then, I turned to follow the path of destruction left by the undead creatures. They were definitely not even the least bit subtle, with no care of what traces they might leave behind. In some ways, I preferred dealing with overt foes like these more than the sly criminals I dealt with on a daily basis. The destruction these undead creatures caused was straightforward, as opposed to the damage wrought by human nature.

But death and destruction would always be a hard sight to swallow.

There were thankfully no little girls dressed in red among the fallen. I kept moving, lending a hand to two villagers who were still breathing. My platoon members cast healing spells to the best of their abilities, enough for the villagers to stand and limp to safety. The clerics back at the camp would be able to see to the rest of their injuries, though their hands were full with the more critically injured.

I moved on ahead.

"Captain! There's a girl—"

I rushed forward, sword already drawn. There were two undead creatures to her left and right, looking to be death knights, but I wasn't certain. They were definitely not the kind of death knight that could be found in any textbook of ours.

I almost couldn't see her, as she was dwarfed by the towering undead flanking her, but the bright red of her hair ribbons drew my eyes to where she stood. There was something odd about how still she was—she wasn't trembling or even making any attempt at fleeing—but even as that thought ran through my mind my sword flew faster, slamming into the death knight closest to me. It was only then that she finally moved, but it wasn't to jump into the arms of the judgment knights rushing over to rescue her. Instead, it was to pivot and glare at me, before she then began tossing dark blades at me.

I leaped backward and dodged, eyes narrowing. No wonder she had made no attempt to flee, and it wasn't because she had been frightened to the point of immobility.

This was no friend of the little boy's, unless his friend was a necromancer. From afar she had seemed to be a normal girl, but in close proximity even I could detect the rivulets of dark element oozing from her, and that wasn't something that could be overlooked in this land overrun by the dark element. Her dark element overpowered even the dense concentration of dark element that surrounded us. Perhaps she was even some kind of undead creature, such as a witch, but something told me she was nothing so simple.

"I won't let you take him," she warned. **_He's not yours to take! I won't hand him over!_**

I clutched my head, the ground suddenly too close. Cries of "Captain!" only made a sharp pain seize me, and the _thump, thump, thump_ that followed clued me in that my platoon members had been hit with the same attack, each of them collapsing.

Meanwhile, the death knight that I had struck pulled itself up to the tune of her voice, rushing forward with no care for itself. The other death knight followed closely on its heels, striking at me in tandem. I forced my arm up even as I clutched my head with the other and blocked them, only to see the little girl swing herself onto a black horse—no, a unicorn—that had just galloped over from behind the trees.

I looked over through eyes I could barely open amidst the pain, and that was when one of the death knights stabbed me in the stomach, but I couldn't help my inattention, for there _he_ stood behind the trees, hidden from the sun, a lurking shadow that stole all thought from me. It was no wonder we hadn't been able to find him, with how he blended right into the shadows when we had been seeking our guiding light instead. It might have been the pain making me see things, but that didn't stop the flare of hope that threatened to suffocate me.

"S-Sun!" I shouted.

He did not even glance my way, as if that was not his name. Rather, it was the little girl who gave me a glare seething with hatred, while the unicorn galloped in the direction of my long lost friend.

I shoved the death knight away from me, blood gushing from my wound as the foe's sword tore from my flesh. I put all my strength into my next swing to make sure both death knights stayed down. I pressed down on the wound, staggering forward, but by the time I could look up again, he was no longer there.

* * *

I cleared my throat, wishing he would turn my way. "I'm here for you."

He laughed sharply in disbelief. "And you say you're not hitting on me? You're giving me goosebumps. Hey bartender, give this guy some tea or something so he can stop staring at me."

He pushed his chair back, as if to leave, scaring the bartender so much that he'd stopped wiping his glass, unwilling to be left alone with me, but my hand darted out before I knew it. I held Grisia's wrist, his flesh warm below my cold fingers. Even then, he didn't look at me. He tugged once, but I held on tightly.

"Grisia, don't run away," I said.

"Let go," he warned.

 _How can I let go?_ I couldn't. If I could, I wouldn't be here.

* * *

We found the right girl, in the end. She was wearing a red dress, like the boy had claimed, and had her hair tied up with ribbons in what had possibly been pigtails before the carefully done hairdo had been thrown into disarray. She was face down, her little body too still, her red dress too startling red—from blood.

The clerics fell upon me when we returned, gasping at the sight of my blood drenched clothes. I wanted to wave them off, but a bout of lightheadedness brought me to my knees, and I could only let them fuss over me when there were still so many citizens who needed their aid more than I did.

I had lost too much blood. The hasty healing spells on the way back could only do so much.

I braced myself, letting their warm, soothing healing spells fall upon my wounds. But even as my flesh knitted itself back together, the pain in my head and heart remained.

Beyond the clerics, a young face stood out. The boy bit his lips, eyes darting around, never landing on me for long. I must be a ghastly sight, drenched in blood, but more than that, it was the answer he was afraid of. I could hardly fault him for that.

All I could do was hand him a ribbon and watch as tears welled in his eyes.

* * *

"Grisia, don't run away," I said again, unwilling to let go. "Open your eyes."

* * *

"This wound will take several days to heal completely, sir," one of the clerics said. "Um, please rest for today."

I gave a nod, pulling my shirt back down, already formulating ideas. The journey back had given me plenty of time to think, to piece together the clues. The next town beyond the forest was not yet evacuated. The necromancer was likely to have gone there, given the path she had taken when she had fled. Where she went, he was likely to be, considering my suspicions about her identity.

If only I had told Grisia about his candidacy, perhaps he would have been better prepared and would not have gone missing. But what ifs did us little good.

After nightfall, I pulled myself up from my bedroll, lifting the flap of the tent and exiting. I adjusted my cloak and untied a horse. I had already rested long enough. If I rested any longer, there was no telling if I would be able to find them there.

I had to be quick. I had to get Grisia away from her.

* * *

He snorted. "Open my eyes? You're the one who told me to do so. Don't run away screaming now."

After saying that, he finally opened his eyes, which he had kept closed this entire time. The bartender sucked in a breath at the sight, having obviously been listening in to our conversation.

My breath hitched for a moment too, the bright blue I had been expecting nowhere to be seen. Instead, what greeted me was an expanse of black that spread even to the edge of his eyes, just as black as his hair.

Grisia growled and snapped his eyes shut again. With a show of strength I had not expected, he wrenched his hand out of my grasp. I already missed the warmth.

"See, I told you—"

"Did I run away screaming?" I cut in. "Out of the two of us, I bet I'm the scarier one. That bartender over there would agree. Open your eyes."

"Who do you think you are to command me?" Grisia bit out, but even as he complained, he opened his eyes again, finally turning to face me head on.

Upon first glance, I had only seen how dark his eyes were, but they weren't purely black.

"There's a bit of golden light in your eyes, like a starry night," I whispered, hand reaching out to brush back a lock of his black hair so I could see better. "They're astonishing."

Just as astonishing as that night sky I had seen upon opening my eyes again.

"Astonishing?" Grisia laughed but didn't swat my hand away. "That's the first time I've ever heard anyone describe them that way."

* * *

She was not alone, instead surrounded by undead creatures, but neither the black unicorn nor Grisia were in sight. I slowed my horse down, about to turn away to seek Grisia elsewhere, but from the turn of her head, I surmised that she must have already been alerted to my presence.

All at once, the fastest of the undead creatures by her side shot out, biting at the legs of my horse. My horse whinnied and reared up, kicking the undead creatures away from her. I grabbed her mane, trying to prevent myself from getting thrown off.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here?" The girl said and walked forward, the undead creatures parting the way for her. "Was the warning this afternoon not enough?"

My horse snorted, foot pawing the ground. I patted her on the neck, never taking my eyes off of the necromancer in front of me. She was still my best lead to Grisia.

"Are you Scarlet?" I asked, nearly one hundred percent certain that she had to be the lich that Neo had mentioned, the one that had tried to take Grisia away all those years ago. She hadn't managed it back then, but here she was now, bending Grisia to her will.

The girl narrowed her eyes at me. "So you know my name. Then you must know what I am? How _brave_ of you to seek me out all by yourself, Judgment Knight!"

She followed her words up with an attack, several undead creatures pouncing forward. Cutting down the undead creatures was useless, as she summoned more after they fell. I would have to deal with the source, with her, if I wanted to stop them.

 _Will removing her help Grisia? If she is controlling him..._

If not, I could not imagine that Grisia wouldn't return on his own.

I leaned forward, urging my horse to take us charging at the girl as I sliced through the undead creatures swarming us. I could not give the necromancer any time to gather more of her magic, to hit me with anything else other than the undead creatures she commanded. If a repeat of the afternoon were to happen, if she were to attack me with her voice again, I—

I crumpled in pain, toppling forward, hand scrambling to seize the mane of my horse but failing to do so. Dread seized me as I suddenly recalled what I had told the little boy earlier in the day. _You'll be doing no one any good if you get yourself killed._

I had warned him not to run off to save his friend on his own. _Aren't I doing the same thing?_

 ** _Never again confuse my child, Judgment Knight!_**

The ground rushed up to meet me. Pain exploded in my neck.

 _I should not have come alone._

* * *

My tea arrived in a wine glass, served to me via trembling hands. The bartender set it down, the liquid nearly sloshing his hands in his haste before he then quickly retreated.

"My thanks," I told him, taking the glass he had procured for me. In times as trying as these, one couldn't be particular about the type of cup one's tea came in, nor could one fault a bartender for his nerves.

"Huh, he took me seriously," Grisia said.

"It's obvious he takes utmost pride in his job," I responded. "Whether he's serving wine or tea."

 _Or someone like me._

The entire village was quite empty, with few shops left open. Most had evacuated. He could very well have skipped out on serving anyone at all, but here the bartender was, still going at his job despite the looming doom that awaited us all.

I took a sip, the tea unfortunately bland, like everything else ever since. But it was soothing and warm. I took a bigger gulp, the tea warming me up.

"Well, now we're even," Grisia said. "You got me a drink. I got you a drink. Even. Bye."

"Grisia," I said to stop him, the tea giving me courage, the last push I needed. It was going to hurt to rip apart this charade, but I was prepared to do so. When I looked over at him, he had his back facing me. He was already halfway to the door. I couldn't let him walk out like this.

"Sun," I tried, the name nearly foreign yet so familiar, "you remember, don't you?"

* * *

Cold.

It was _cold_.

My entire body shuddered. I opened my eyes. The dark, night sky stretched on and on, not even broken by moonlight. I stared into the abyss, lost and alone, but it was then that a faint pulse of light drew my attention. The inky sky was not without stars, after all.

I followed the faint light, mesmerized, and rolled to my side, my entire back aching, only to be greeted by the sight of a long-haired figure. He had his hands to his face, inky black locks tangled in his fingers, his shoulders shaking minutely as he rocked himself back and forth, mumbling something over and over that I couldn't entirely make out.

"Gri—" I started to say but stopped. The rest of the name wouldn't come to me. I shook my head, trying to dislodge the cobwebs miring my thoughts.

He startled, his entire body stilling.

 _I know you, don't I?_

I knew him, yet I could not... No, besides that...

 _Who am I?_

* * *

He stilled, just like then, when I had almost called his name but couldn't. It had taken me some time to remember, my memories jumbled upon waking, allowing him to run away and play pretend. But this pretense couldn't go on any longer. Even now, my memories were still a maze, but I sorted enough of them out to know that I shouldn't have let him out of my sight that night. I of course sought him out afterwards, but all he did was run, each and every time.

"Don't call me that," he finally said, voice quiet. "I'm not Sun."

"Just because you don't have blond hair and blue eyes?" I asked.

I got up, angling my back away from the counter, careful not to bump into it, and stepped closer to him.

"You reme—" he started to say and turn toward me, only to stop abruptly. "If you're talking about the Sun Knight, everyone knows he has blond hair and blue eyes, duh."

I smiled sadly. _You remember? Isn't that what you want to ask? What a sad pair we are, both questioning our memories. But you've given yourself away. You_ do _remember._ I shook my head, reaching for a memory that had come to me with clarity when nothing else had at the time.

 _"The Sun Knight leads the people forward, while the Judgment Knight will protect his road forward and not let anything obstruct it!"_

"I don't care what color your hair or eyes are. Like I said, I'm here for you," I said. "Let me protect your road forward."

"What road _is_ there?" He whirled around completely, arms stretched outward, eyes wide open. This was apparently the last straw after my relentless chase, as Grisia started shouting, all that he had held back, finally letting me slip past his defense, however unwilling on the surface. His words came rushing out, a torrent crashing upon us. "Why can't you just leave me alone? Why can't you just leave things be?! Forget about me! I... I don't want..."

He covered his face, his shoulders trembling minutely, the sight like a redo of that night. Each time I pushed, he must have been close to the edge, hanging on by a thread, yet I could not just leave things be. I reached out, wishing I had done so then, gently taking his hands and pulling them away from his face, rewarding me with an angry scowl and cheeks that were far from dry. He turned his head away and growled, "Don't look at me."

 _That's too much to ask me. How can I look away?_

"Grisia."

"Don't," he warned.

"Why not?" I prodded.

"Why? Look at me! Look at _you_!" he snapped and pushed me. "I was too late! I couldn't do anything. I... I..."

* * *

I pulled myself up, struggling to sit up, the pain in my back finally receding as I did so. I turned to look for a wound, only to be greeted by something completely unexpected.

Astounded, I extended the appendages on my back. They were black and large, so very large. _Wings_ , my mind supplied. I had wings.

The long-haired man by my side choked back a sob.

* * *

Startled by Grisia's shove, I accidentally let my wings unfurl in an attempt to steady myself, bumping into the counter and jostling the wine glasses, the very situation I had wanted to avoid. The bartender dove forward, hurriedly rescuing them. His reflexes weren't half bad. He hadn't been too late, and neither was Grisia.

"You weren't too late," I said. "I'm here, aren't I?"

In fact, this was a much better outcome than I could have ever hoped for. I knew that now. It was only right for my folly to be answered in such a way. I hadn't managed to crawl away so that he wouldn't find my body. If I had woken up only to discover that he had lost something irreplaceable... I would never have forgiven myself.

 _Even now, I..._

He shook his head. Perhaps he was too distraught to speak, as he spoke no further.

"You weren't too late," I repeated. I had thought back on that night afterwards, piecing together what could have possibly happened as I waded through what I remembered. I might not be entirely correct, but I had a good idea of how things must have gone. "You found me that night well before the eight hour limit and cast spell after spell, trying to resurrect me, your memories coming back to you from the shock of seeing me dead. But the holy element would not answer to you. Time marched on, until resurrecting me was no longer an option. You brought me back a different way, and here I am now."

He must have knelt beside my body, powerless to do anything about the dark element corroding it. Hours, all alone, with only despair and anguish to accompany him, and no one to answer his prayers. I could not even fathom what he must have felt then. _How could I have forced Grisia to experience that?_

I had heard him mumbling that night. I had not understood what he had been saying, not then, but later, I figured out that he must have been mumbling, _Why have You abandoned me, God of Light?_

 _Why indeed?_

"I have yet to see Scarlet around at all. You must have done something to her. Perhaps you killed her or sealed her away," I went on to say.

"I killed her," he finally mumbled. " _And_ I sealed her."

"Ah, both." I was almost right.

"You've always been ridiculously good at figuring things out, Le—" Grisia clamped his mouth shut, face paling so much, he resembled a ghost, but even then, he was full of life, unlike me. I could be lost at the sight.

"So you do remember," I murmured. "What I don't understand is... Why pretend that you don't?"

* * *

I tracked him to the outskirts of a different village. He stood by the trees, holding his hand out to the black unicorn I had previously seen with the necromancer, a ball of dark element hovering above his palm. The unicorn nudged his hand, licking the dark element like a treat. I paused, the sight nearly overwhelming me. He was right there, within reach. The sense of dread within me loosened, just a bit.

He didn't turn my way, as if I weren't watching him. When my feet brought me near, he finally spoke up, only to say, "I'll have you know, this is my unicorn."

I blinked in confusion. He didn't give me any time to respond.

"You here to buy him? No? Then, is it to arrest me? Well, I haven't done anything wrong! He's the one who won't stop following me. Besides, it's not like I'm neglecting him. See? I'm feeding the gluttonous bastard! What more do you want from me?"

 _Arrest him? What?_

"No? You're not here to arrest me for pet abuse? Then, why are we even talking? Bye!"

* * *

I shook my head. "Each and every time, you pretended like you didn't know me. Why, Grisia?"

Grisia didn't say anything in response. It seemed that it would be up to me to figure out once more what exactly was going on.

"I thought about it, over and over. Why run away? At first, you didn't remember. You didn't even respond to my calling you Sun. But your memories did return later. Why pretend they haven't? Is it because you feel guilty? Don't be. You didn't kill me. You weren't too late either."

Grisia gave a sharp, pained laugh at that. "How am I not guilty? _How_ am I not too late? You're basically _dead_."

"So? I don't care about that." I was still here. I may not have been able to return to the Holy Temple, but perhaps, one day, I could. _If a death lord could be the Hell Knight, then could I not continue as the Judgment Knight?_ I was still here, and that meant I had not caused Grisia pain he could not recover from.

"Well, you damn should!" Grisia snarled, fists clenched. "And you need to stop being a damn tapeworm and leave things be! If I remember, if _you_ remember, then... then..."

"Then, what?" I prodded. The last tangle was about to be unraveled.

"Then, what happens to you, Lesus?" Grisia whispered, the fight going out of him, voice so quiet that I almost didn't hear him.

 _Lesus._ Yes, that was my name. _Not just Judgment. Lesus Judgment._ Following that thread, this maze of memories could be traversed at last. The exit was right there, along with what Grisia had been worrying about all along. I had thought it to be guilt, but while there certainly was a great deal of that, guilt wasn't what held him back.

"You're not the only one who can figure things out, Lesus," Grisia said and gestured at himself. "Your lingering obsession. Isn't it to find me and bring me back? So tell me, Lesus Judgment, why have you come here? Why must you do this to yourself? Are you a masochist? Do you want to _die_ again? If you bring me back, then you'll... I don't want you gone!"

* * *

The tavern door swung closed behind him, dark hair disappearing inside the building. For a moment, I stood gazing at the swinging door, my feet rooted to the ground. Something in me had compelled me to come this far, to chase after him and commit the sight of him to my memory. I could not let my memories of him remain the sorrowful picture of him kneeled in despair by my side, or for my mind to be filled with his denials of knowing me, effectively keeping me at arm's length, forever a stranger. I didn't want that.

That wasn't us.

Somewhere in me, I ached for his return, for our return, to what we had before, to when he smiled so much more. Even before I remembered, I knew that he wasn't a stranger. He couldn't be a stranger. For him, I would gladly climb any and all walls before me, if only I could reach him. _A younger me had climbed plenty of walls for him, hadn't I?_

Even now, when my entire existence was an anomaly, I wished that there was still normalcy to be found, that I could still protect his path forward.

 _No, it doesn't have to be a mere wish. No matter what I look like, or what he looks like, as long as we aren't afraid, what can't we do?_

It didn't matter what might happen to me, as long as I could guide Grisia out of the darkness, out of this tumultuous maze, so that he would not remain lost. He had done so for me, countless times. Now, it was my turn. Whether he wished to become the Demon King, or return as the Sun Knight, or leave everything behind, I would protect his way forward.

That was our norm. That was us.

I pushed open the door and headed inside, ready for whatever may come.

 _Perhaps, I'll buy him a drink first._

* * *

the end

 **A/N:** It's finally done~. I've been working on this story for months, ahaha. This piece is somewhat experimental, though only on the surface, as its final form is simply another fic in which Lesus and Grisia sit around talking. So yeah. They talk. A lot. I seem to like that. I also smush together some displaced events that kind of still happen but in a different way. With Lesus going after Scarlet, his death scene still plays out despite the different location. But with Grisia unable to use holy element, he couldn't resurrect Lesus, and thus, the foundation of this story. I also figured that since Grisia isn't in Leaf Bud City, the birth of the Demon King will actually happen elsewhere. More like, the fight will be taken to where Grisia is.

There are still some loose ends (like why Lesus has wings and where the heck his horse went), so there will be a few extra scenes to come! They can completely be skipped though, as this story stands on its own. (At least, that's the intention...). The extra scenes are quite full of crack, haha. I was going to post them together with this story, but it was getting a bit unwieldy. And the tone is completely different. So, I'll post them separately. Probably before the next oneshot in this AU collection.

Thanks for reading~. Would love to hear your thoughts!


	3. That Which Was Lost Extras

New Horizons: a collection of LSK AUs

by Lucathia

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own the Legend of Sun Knight and make no profit from writing this.

* * *

 **That Which Was Lost: Extras  
**

 _After Grisia was lost with only the Divine Sun Sword left behind, he was never found. Until Lesus comes across an "amnesic" Grisia while evacuating the citizens. AU branching from V4, causing future events to play out differently. And now, the crack-filled extras.  
_

* * *

1\. _Masochist_

"I'm no masochist." But the word sparked a memory. I thought out loud, "But Metal does like to get whipped."

"What?! Metal is a masochist?" Grisia blurted, his reaction once more revealing that his memories had indeed returned.

 _Oh. Did I just reveal Metal's secret without his permission?_ "...Pretend you didn't hear that."

While I was glad to reclaim another memory, I wish they weren't so difficult to keep straight.

* * *

2\. _Memories_

"How did you figure out that I got my memories back? I put a lot of effort into making sure you wouldn't figure it out, you know!" Grisia grumbled.

Truly, his reactions in this tavern had made me certain, but I had already had a very good inkling when I'd confronted Grisia at the outskirts of that other village.

"Grisia," I called out, the recollection amusing me in hindsight.

"Hm?"

I gestured at myself. "I'm a creature of darkness now. If you didn't remember that I was the Judgment Knight, why would you even claim that I was there to arrest you? Who would even think of a creature of darkness doing that?"

"...Oh."

* * *

3\. _Beauty_

"You're still the Judgment Knight. You'll always be Judgment to me," Grisia said, but even as he said that, I could feel him focusing on me, as if seeing me for the first time.

Perhaps it hadn't truly sunken in that I was a creature of darkness.

Perhaps I was so much the Judgment Knight to him that the absurdity of my arresting someone even while I looked like this had never even crossed his mind.

Whatever was the case, Grisia suddenly moved closer and reached out.

"Why are you caressing my cheek?" I asked, though the warmth of his hand against my cool skin felt rather nice.

"Such pure dark element, such beauty..." Grisia whispered.

 _Beauty? That's a first..._ "Are you calling me beautiful?"

Startled, Grisia shouted, "Shut up! You were touching my face earlier and saying that my eyes are 'astonishing.' Why can't I do the same?"

"..."

* * *

4\. _Light Show_

"You're not fading into pink light," Grisia said, lifting my hand, as if examining it.

"You can't even see color," I commented.

"...Oh, right."

"Besides, didn't you prepare that light show for Roland's 'resolution' of his obsession? Even if I faded away, I wouldn't be accompanied by pink light."

I was all too glad that of all the things I actually remembered, I recalled that the pink light had not been natural.

If I had to pick a color, I would much rather it be blue, like his eyes.

 _I really do miss them._

* * *

5\. _Lingering Obsession_

"Grisia, how long do you plan on holding my hand?" I didn't mind that he had switched from caressing my cheek to holding my hand, but it would be difficult to fight like this if the other demon king candidates suddenly attacked.

"Until I'm sure you're not going to fade away!" Grisia hissed and tightened his grip, but it wasn't enough to hurt. "Stupid Lesus!"

 _Would this be a bad time to reveal that it's not my lingering obsession to find him and bring him back?_

It would have been poetic if it had been, but luckily for both of us, that was not what tied me to this world.

* * *

6\. _Demon King_

"I've decided, Lesus. I'm going to become the Demon King."

"That's sudden. What brought it on?"

"You're questioning me? You said you'd support me no matter what I decided on! Liar!"

 _I really do mean it. But this is also very sudden._

If Grisia truly wished to become the Demon King, I would support him, but I was fairly sure that that wasn't what he wanted.

"I'm not going to let you 'move on' Lesus! You bet I'm never going to return to being the Sun Knight, so don't you dare move on. Take that!"

 _Oh... so that's how it is._ Poor timing or not, I could only say, "But you're wrong about my lingering obsession."

"What?!"

* * *

7\. _Lingering Obsession, Take 2_

"Y-You don't want to bring me back?"

"No, I just mean that it isn't my lingering obsession to do so." I had regretted something else more.

"Then what _is_ your lingering obsession? Spit it out already, so we know what to avoid."

I thought for a moment. "If I had to come up with a lingering obsession, I'd say it's that I never told you that you're a demon king candidate. I wish I had told you. Maybe then, all of this could have been avoided."

Grisia frowned. "How'd you even know in the first place? Wait! Does this count? You basically just told me I'm a demon king candidate, even though I already know! Don't you dare disappear, Lesus Judgment!" Grisia's voice rose higher and higher as he spoke. "Wait, 'if I _had_ to come up with a lingering obsession'... What the... What does that even mean?"

"..."

* * *

8\. _Bartender_

I was saved from answering for now by someone unexpected. The bartender slid over two mugs, his action stunning me. I had not thought he would go out of his way to bring us drinks we hadn't even ordered when he had been so scared of me earlier. He was clearly reading the mood and felt it needed to be lightened.

Grisia was stunned as well, seemingly having forgotten about the bartender altogether.

We both sat down. Grisia's drink was alcoholic while mine was warm to the touch, likely to be tea once more. It was just like what we had ordered for each other earlier, though it seemed the bartender had found more mugs and didn't need to serve me tea in a wine glass this time.

A conversation like this one definitely warranted drinks. I raised my mug to the bartender and gave him a nod.

I had underestimated him. But like I had thought, he was proud of his job. In front of someone like this, I did not mind if he overheard us. Besides, it had been more important to stop Grisia from fleeing.

Grisia tossed his drink back. I could not help but watch him close his eyes in pleasure. Then, he slammed the mug down, threatening black eyes flying open to stare the bartender down. The poor guy backed up.

Grisia said, "We're actors, got it? We were just practicing our lines."

"..."

* * *

9\. _Horse_

The black unicorn was outside. He hadn't been around earlier. Could he have been exploring on his own and had only just returned now? In any case, seeing him made me wonder where my own steed had gone.

"You had a horse with you?" Grisia responded when I asked him. "I didn't see one around. Must have run off. Whitey does it all the time."

 _She's a smart one,_ I comforted myself. After I fell, it was likely that she had run off like what Grisia was suggesting. The only familiar place to her that was nearby was the refugee camp, so she had likely returned there.

An untied horse without a rider was begging to be investigated. My platoon members weren't novices. I did not doubt that they would be able to track me down.

* * *

10\. _Textbook_

"Look, Lesus, I really don't care about your horse at all. Stop changing the topic. What I want to know is, what the hell did you mean earlier?"

"You took a good look just now, didn't you?" _You even called me beautiful, when anyone else would quaver at the sight of me. Just take that bartender as an example._ "Either our textbook on undead creatures is very outdated, or I'm simply not a death knight at all."

"What?!"

Truly, only Grisia could manage to bring me back as a creature of darkness that couldn't even be found in our textbooks. I wasn't exactly a death knight, but what else could I be? Even I didn't know. All I knew was that I could not leave Grisia alone.

* * *

11\. _Wings_

I shivered at his touch.

"You have wings," Grisia said, stunned.

"An astounding observation," I said. "I never would have... actually, I didn't notice at first."

Death knights only gained wings after becoming death lords, yet I had had them from the start. Besides, death lords usually had the wings of dragons, yet I didn't. It was yet another thing that made me a different sort of existence altogether.

"Grisia, stop that," I said, willing myself not to shiver again, yet I did not pull my wings out of his reach.

"But, you have feathers, Lesus! Feathers! You're so... _fluffy._ "

 _A fluffy, undead Judgment Knight?_ I laughed and opened my wings wider, pulling Grisia against me, his punishment for teasing me. Then, I closed my wings around us, wrapping him up.

"You'd make a great blanket," Grisia mumbled as he wrapped his arms around me, his voice tickling my neck. Then, he lifted his head up, as if staring at me, even though _he_ couldn't see. But those black eyes of his pierced right into me, the golden light in them mesmerizing me. His eyes weren't blue, but they truly were beautiful all the same.

"This means you won't disappear, right? You won't ever leave me?" Grisia whispered.

An undead creature's existence was unnatural. Of those undead creatures, at least a death knight was an existence that could ascend to heaven after settling their obsession. I had no such "peace" ahead of me and would perhaps wander this world forever even after this man I held dear were no longer around, but for now, it was a boon, granted to me even after my foolishness.

"I won't," I promised. "I'll always be with you."

* * *

12\. _Horse, Take 2_

"Lesus, something is wrong with Whitey. He's not slobbering over his food!"

"What do you mean?"

"I gathered dark element for him, but he actually turned his head away. How rude!"

"Are unicorns even supposed to eat dark element?"

"He's been eating it this entire time. Hasn't dropped dead yet."

"Why not try feeding him something else?"

" _Fine,_ here, have this disgusting apple... What? You actually prefer the apple over dark element I went out of my way to gather for you? See if I'll gather any more for you in the future, hmph!"

"Wait, Grisia, he's not eating the apple. He's going somewhere with it. Where is he going?"

"Hey, wait, Whitey! You come right back here! I'm not done talking! Where do you think you're going, huh? Oh. My. God, Lesus, I can't believe it."

"What?"

"That gluttonous bastard just gave the apple to some horse. Whitey, giving his food away?!"

"Some horse? What horse? Oh... huh... that's my horse."

"What?"

"That's my horse. So she didn't return to the refugee camp after all..."

"Oh. Oh my god. Whitey is romancing your horse? But they're not even the same species!"

"We aren't the same species either."

"..."

* * *

the end

 **A/N:** Hope you enjoyed the crack. More rambling thoughts on my Dreamwidth. Thanks for reading, and look forward to the next oneshot in this collection.


	4. That Lollipop's Lingering Taste

New Horizons: a collection of LSK AUs

by Lucathia

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own the Legend of Sun Knight and make no profit from writing this.

* * *

 **That Lollipop's Lingering Taste**

 _Grisia accepts Charlotte's lunch invitation. A certain kidnapping is avoided. Even after all these years, Charlotte hasn't ever forgotten the taste of that blueberry lollipop they shared by the fountain side. AU of V6C5. For the prompt, "Alternate Showdown."_

* * *

"Are you free right now? I'll treat you to lunch," said Charlotte after I gave her the blueberry lollipop I had saved for her. She hugged the lollipop to herself as she waited for my response. _Hey, I'm not going to snatch it back from you, okay? I already gave it to you!_

Besides, I had eaten an entire basket of blueberry desserts not all that long ago. I wasn't going to fight her over a single lollipop.

 _Still, for a mere lollipop, I'm getting an entire meal, and my lunch companion is even going to be a cute girl. What a deal!_

There was no reason for me to turn down such a good deal, except that I really needed to confront Awaitsun. I simply couldn't accept her invitation. _Wait, didn't Awaitsun say that Stephen is basically his Adair? He and Awaitsun must be close._

Awaitsun trusted Stephen enough to bring him from the Kingdom of Kissinger all the way here on this diplomatic trip regarding such a delicate situation. It wasn't possible for him not to be privy to some inside information about the Demon King. Even if Awaitsun refused to tell me a method to allow me to give up my demon king qualifications, it was possible that a subordinate as close to him as Stephen would have some clue. Getting leverage before confronting Awaitsun was not a bad course to take.

I considered the girl who was still clutching to her chest the blueberry lollipop I'd given her. She smiled up at me shyly. _Well, who am I to turn down this opportunity to gain the upper hand against Awaitsun and his lackeys when it's practically handed to me on a silver platter?_

I softened my expression and smiled gently at her. There was no way she wouldn't fall for that.

She beamed, making her appear rather cute even to my sensing.

* * *

As it wouldn't do for the Sun Knight to be seen with a girl, I asked her to meet me at the restaurant we were to dine at, to which she gave me a pout. _Hey, hey, don't go stealing my specialty now!_

Then, I returned to my room to fetch a cloak and prepare for my meeting with Charlotte. When I arrived at the restaurant, she was already there and had selected a private booth, which did throw my plans off.

No matter. If we could not be overheard through the walls, I could always rely on psychic magic to communicate what was going on if the situation called for it, and this did allow us some privacy from the public.

I gave a nod to my shadow, and he made his way to the closest table in our vicinity.

I joined her, slipping inside the booth without a sound, much to her surprise. _Do you take me to be some ungraceful lout?_ But after her initial surprise, a wide smile spread across her face, instantly brightening her entire person up, chasing away the darkness that shrouded her. She exclaimed, "I almost thought you weren't going to come!"

 _Hey, hey, I didn't take that long to change, okay? You barely had to wait!_ I said none of that, however, as to her, I was the Sun Knight, not someone to joke around with like a close friend.

I pulled my hood up higher now that she knew it was me, making sure my face would be shrouded when the waitress came to take my order. Across the table, Charlotte pouted at my visage getting hidden.

The moment the waitress left, she complained, "Why can't you drop the hood? It's only the two of us here."

 _Not only am I meeting you at a restaurant, I'm even meeting you in a private booth. Can you imagine what the headlines will say if this ever hits the news? Please, spare me an early meeting with the God of Light!_

I already had a hard enough time quelling the rumors of the legendary "foursome," those rumors resulting from that disastrous teaching session of Pink's. There was no need to add a new rumor to rekindle the fire.

"Please allow Sun this. Sun is here because of your pure heart"— _what a silly, pure-hearted girl to be so enamored of a single, blueberry lollipop_ —"and wishes to share with you the benevolence of the God of Light. Sun may only do so wearing this garment, as is the God of Light's will." I held my hand against my chest as I spoke to show my sincerity.

She made a face at my words. Perhaps she didn't like my explanation, or perhaps she was already tired of hearing God of Light this, God of Light that. _Who knows?_ As a shadowpriest serving the Shadow God, it probably rubbed her the wrong way to have to hear another god get praised every three sentences. _But hey, you're in the Sun Knight's presence! You should at least mask your reaction! You're not Storm, you know? You don't get to complain. Besides, everyone knows the Sun Knight speaks this way. You can't even claim ignorance for being a shadowpriest who lives in a different kingdom—you used to live in Leaf Bud City!_

I let it slide, however. I mean, here I was, sitting at a private booth with a cute girl for the very first time in my whole entire life, and she was neither a corpse nor a princess who would snub me and call me a despicable and shameless bastard. In fact, she was clearly enamored with me, having pestered me to share a meal together with her. She had even claimed that I was super handsome, which was no small compliment when she had to have high standards with Awaitsun coloring her judgment. _I am never going to stop bragging about this to Earth!_

For a moment, a terrible thought crossed my mind— _she hasn't been pestering me all this time to get me alone to ask me for love advice about someone else, right? Like Adair? Or my "best" friend, Earth?_ I'd heard too many tales of that happening before among the holy knights. A guy, super happy to get invited, only to discover that he wasn't the object of the girl's infatuation… and was, in fact, never considered in the first place, viewed as a good friend and stepping stone. Whether he was even viewed as a guy was a question to be debated.

Well, if that were the case, I'd make sure to give the person in question my "best" wishes, such as hiding all of their right socks so that they'd only have their left socks left. _No more correct socks for you!_

Ahem, devising plans to hide someone's socks was hardly why I had agreed to her invitation.

I smiled widely, certain that even while I wore a hood, my smile would still be bright enough to capture her heart. It worked, for she smiled back at me and sighed, "You're so beautiful, Sun Knight."

 _Hey, hey, what happened to "super handsome?"_ Seriously, the things I needed to let slide with this girl.

She seemed content to just sit there and stare at what little bit of my face she could see under my hood. _Creepy. Okay, she has got to be interested in me and not Adair or Earth. But why?_

In any case, I could definitely make use of her interest to swindle some information out of her. As the youngest shadowpriest of the Cathedral of the Shadow God, she had to be of considerable talent. Moreover, she was the sister of Stephen, whom Awaitsun considered to be his "Adair." Even if Charlotte didn't know much, I bet her brother did, and she could make him talk.

Her creepy staring was finally interrupted when the first of the appetizers was brought over, a platter of salmon seasoned with lime and cilantro, piped onto cucumbers. As Charlotte was going to pay for the meal, I did not hold back at all with what I ordered. Though I could not order in large quantities, as it would not do for even one person to think of the Sun Knight as a pig, I did order the most expensive items on the menu, not that there were any cheap things on the menu at this particular restaurant. Charlotte didn't even bat an eye at the price— _don't tell me shadowpriests actually make a lot of money? I don't believe it!_

Perhaps a gentleman would feel bad about making the lady pay so much, but she was getting free eye candy out of it, so she really wasn't losing out. _As for the hood preventing her from seeing much, well, the less she could see, the more she could use her imagination. Even better!_

In any case, I could not wait to finish the appetizers to make way for the main course and dessert. There was no way I wasn't ordering dessert after this.

Of course, as the Sun Knight, I could not eat without manners, so I picked up my utensils and gracefully set to work, one slow bite at a time.

The soup was served next, of a creamy consistency that Leaf would no doubt love. All this time, Charlotte did not even move to pick up her utensils, opting to stare dreamily at me instead, elbows propped on the table, hands folded under her chin. As the Sun Knight, I was quite used to people staring at me all the time, but even I was starting to feel that this was getting awkward. _No matter how gracefully I'm eating, if I'm the only one eating, then in juxtaposition, I'll still appear like a pig!_

"Sun Knight, are you liking the meal?" she asked, eyes trained on me.

I dabbed at my mouth, preparing to speak even though I really wanted to eat more. "Sun thanks you for treating him to this delicious meal. You are too generous. Please, join Sun in partaking of these exquisite delicacies."

 _Start eating already and stop staring at me! Then, I can continue eating!_

She ducked her head, a shy smile adorning her face, probably due to elation over my gratitude and invitation to join me in the meal. She finally picked up her spoon, as it must be awkward having it pointed out to her that she hadn't started eating and was obviously staring at me. _I mean, I do have a beautiful—ahem, handsome—face, but do you have to look at me as if I'm more delicious than the super expensive soup that was served to us?_

While she was busy with the soup, I decided to go on the offensive. It never hurt to start with some praises.

"Sun hears from the Silent Eagle that you are the youngest shadowpriest they have ever had. You must be talented. The Cathedral of the Shadow God is lucky to have you in their service," I said, laying it on thick.

Charlotte hastily gulped down the current spoonful of her soup and stuttered, "Um, yes."

"Sun also hears that your older brother Stephen is one of the Silent Eagle's most trusted dark knights. The two of you siblings are both so gifted. It is a pity that you moved out of Leaf Bud City all those years ago. Perhaps in a different life, the two of you would have joined the Church of the God of Light, and we would have been colleagues under the same roof." _To think that we had let two such talented people move away? We could have had them in our ranks!_

Charlotte's eyes widened at my words, and she blurted, "T-that could never happen!"

The strength behind her words took me by surprise, but I didn't let it deter me. I merely let my voice soften as I said, "Sun apologizes. You and your brother must love the Shadow God dearly. Here Sun is, being so unrealistic. Sun only wished to share the benevolence of the God of Light with you."

She waved her hands in the air, spoon still held in one of them. Thankfully, the spoon had nothing on it, or else we could very well have been splattered by soup. She gestured at herself while frowning. "Um, I just mean, look at me, all full of dark element. I could never become a cleric. They're so… shiny."

 _Shiny? I suppose clerics do use the holy element a lot to heal people and cast other protective spells. It is indeed quite an impossible feat to become a cleric without any aptitude for the holy element, but hey, if I could become a holy knight even without any horseback riding or sword skills… I mean, ahem. There are ways._

"Sun is relieved that he has not offended you, but do you not consider yourself worthy of becoming a cleric of the God of Light? You are talented. Sun can tell you have a masterful command of the dark element. Are you not able to heal with the dark element?" I asked. I had never heard anything about the dark element being used in such a way, but hey, she was the master, not me. The more I could learn about the dark element, the better.

"I can, um, sort of," she whispered.

"Truly?" I questioned.

At my curiosity, she began rambling off. "The dark element is a naturally corrosive element. It can't heal in the way that holy element does, but it can be used to knit bones back together and numb pain. It's also particularly useful for flushing toxins out of the body, kind of like… battling poison with poison, I guess. Too much of the dark element in our bloodstream can be harmful to our body, but since the dark element is akin to a strong poison, it can overpower weaker poisons. For people like us, we are already used to the dark element, so we don't feel any negative effects from having it course through our body in place of toxins."

I absorbed the knowledge, impressed. She was obviously in her element. I had never known dark element had so many uses outside of battle. But from her explanation, it sounded like the dark element could not be used on people who were not normally exposed to it. For such people, the dark element was pretty much a poison and would do us more harm than good.

"You could have been our first cleric versed in the dark element," I concluded. "And your brother could have been a boon to any of our Twelve Holy Knight platoons. Tell me, has your brother served as a dark knight for long? The Silent Eagle has only good words to speak about him."

"Um yes, he has served as a dark knight for many years already," Charlotte answered.

I pressed on. "What do his duties entail?"

"He helps the Silent Eagle carry out the Shadow God's will. The current focus is locating all of the demon king candidates and overseeing the upcoming birth of the Demon King."

Finally, we were getting somewhere, and I was even getting a good meal out of it. The roast pig I ordered was served while we conversed, and I elegantly sliced up portions for myself as I continued to prod for more information. It was quite delicious, but I might have ordered a bit too much. _No! No, this could never be too much. I'll always have room for dessert!_

"How does your brother go about his search for the demon king candidates?" I asked, trying to inject as much curiosity into my voice as I could. I was indeed quite curious about it, but I doubted she would reveal it so easily despite how much she liked my face and that lollipop.

Charlotte shrugged. "He and the other dark knights have their ways. I don't know how they do it."

 _Well, that's_ so _helpful._ I stabbed the slice of meat in my plate, trying to think of a different way to attack this topic.

"Does he have anyone in mind that he thinks might be a demon king candidate?" I asked, wondering what she would say. Direct was still the way to go, unless she started clamming up. _Do Stephen or Charlotte know about me? Awaitsun knows, but has he shared that information with anyone else?_

Stephen was his right hand man, after all. Awaitsun might have clued him in, or Stephen might have been the one to figure out my candidacy in the first place from my guide's actions. The guides were the only ones who could truly tell if someone was a demon king candidate, but Awaitsun had said that candidates had great power so were usually part of attention grabbing major events. Even if the guides were much more careful in concealing the candidates now, it should still hold true that the candidates would be more powerful than some random nobody. If Stephen or any of the other dark knights had good deductive skills, then they might have been able to narrow down their guesses.

Charlotte was a terrible liar. After I asked the question, it was all over her face that she and her brother obviously knew who one of the candidates were, and even her body language had become shifty, yet she seemed to have no clue that it was me. Weird. Something didn't add up. _If they know about another candidate, why wasn't Awaitsun informed? Or could it be that Awaitsun knows, but he's keeping me in the dark because he doesn't want to support the other candidate? Is the other candidate someone who would destroy half the world?_

"Enough about my brother!" she pouted. "Did you agree to meet me because you're interested in my brother?"

 _Of course I'm interested in your brother… Hey wait! Hold your horses! What are you trying to imply here?_

To think that I had wondered if she had invited me so she could ask for advice about someone else. Now she was accusing me of it! _Bleeeeh! I have absolutely no interest in Stephen in that way!_

Damn her for cutting off my interrogation without even knowing what she had done. I couldn't continue on with my previous line of questioning without making her wonder why I was so focused on her brother. _Damn it!_

"Sun is here to share a meal with you, not your brother," I agreed, outwardly calm. "But Charlotte, why do you value time spent with Sun so much?" _Gotta turn the conversation back on her!_

At that, Charlotte began toying around with the ends of her super short hair. She had to reach quite high to be able to twist it around her fingers. Few girls had such short hairstyles. It made me wonder if it was the current fashion in the Kingdom of Kissinger, but none of the other shadowpriests who had arrived with Awaitsun had hairstyles like hers. So it was probably just a Charlotte thing. It made her look lively, like someone suited to the name Charlotte, a healthy girl.

"I… Sun Knight…" she began and twisted her hair some more. "Sun Knight, I once dreamed of joining the Holy Temple. But I was just an unlucky girl. You made me think differently! You made me want to work hard to prove that I wasn't just an unlucky girl. That's why I decided to become a shadowpriest. And I wanted to come here and tell you that I made it! I became a shadowpriest!"

It was like she was declaring to me, _See? I'm not useless. I'm someone. And it's all thanks to you._

I opened my mouth. Then, I closed it, unsure of what to say in response to her passion. _I had inspired her that much?_ But I still could not recall ever having met her, even though the more she revealed, the more it had to be me that she was talking about and not my teacher. But this too did not add up.

Something strange was going on here.

Charlotte continued, "That day, you said you were meeting your teacher to find your big sister. I… You saved me from a bunch of bullies and shared a blueberry lollipop with me. I'll never forget the taste of that lollipop we shared. I've always missed that taste."

"We shared a lollipop?" _Dang, itty bitty Grisia, you were pimping! Sharing a single lollipop with a girl?_

"Um... you didn't have enough money to buy two..." Charlotte answered.

 _All right, that sounds more like me._

She placed her hand against the side of her outfit, where she had stashed the lollipop that had led to this lunch invitation. _She really treasures it, huh? And not because of a sweet tooth._

It really had been me that she had met back then.

The taste of that lollipop... I bet she would forever equate it with being saved, yet I had absolutely no recollection of meeting her. However, I had indeed forgotten all about how my meeting with my "big sister" went that day. _Could I have forgotten more than that?_ With memories of that day missing, it was not so farfetched to consider that perhaps more memories had been lost than I even knew about.

The meeting had meant so much to her that it had changed her life, yet I remembered none of it.

I frowned. It all went back to Scarlet, to this demon king business, almost like it was fated, or scripted. I hated the feeling, but it meant that nothing was truly coincidence, and that meant...

"Sun Knight?" she prodded.

I shook myself out of my reverie and plastered my smile back on, showing her a regretful one, trying to hide the disorientation I felt. My memories were not toys for another's amusement, and I was definitely not a puppet for others to manipulate. That day back then reeked of a manufactured occurrence, and both Charlotte and I were deep at the hearts of it. It could not be a coincidence that I had met her that day, or that I had forgotten her so completely. Someone did not want me to remember. If I had not accepted Charlotte's lunch invitation today, I might never have had the chance to unravel this mystery.

But here we were. My smile turned forlorn. I murmured, "Sun cannot apologize enough for not remembering such an important encounter."

"Do you truly not remember? You said to wait for you. I waited and waited, but you never came back…" Water element began gathering at the corner of her eyes, her voice turning smaller and smaller as she spoke.

 _I forgot everything about that day, okay? It's not you! It's me!_

"Is it because you changed your mind? You think I'm unlucky, after all? Why didn't you come back? I waited so long…" she whispered, her voice laced with pain.

This conversation was rapidly spiraling out of my control, and I hadn't nearly gotten enough useful information out of it, only more questions. Charlotte was possibly more deeply involved in whatever was happening than I had first considered.

"Sun is sorry. Sun truly does not remember." Try as I might, the memory of that day was gone, but that lollipop's taste... that I had gotten to experience again and again after our meeting. It was a taste that I too...

The lollipop I gifted Charlotte had been from a basket prepared by Lesus and the others. Plenty of lollipops over the years had been from Lesus and Roland queuing up at the store for me. It was... it was a simple gesture, but one that meant a lot. It was a taste that I too loved.

Charlotte's shoulders slumped. "So I meant so little to you… Stephen was right. He said you would not remember me, but I hoped against all hope that you would." She swallowed hard and wiped at her eyes. "No matter. I'll make you remember me!"

She surged forward, all of a sudden grabbing me by the lapels of my cloak over the table, knocking over her bowl as she did so. Soup spilled across the surface of the table, dripping down the sides. I couldn't believe she hadn't finished such a creamy, delectable soup. Even after all this time, she had never truly been focused on eating.

"What are you doing?" I said, alarmed, hand darting out to grab her wrist.

"Making you look at me!" she cried out.

Gone was the timid girl who had smiled shyly at me, who had tenderly cradled the blueberry lollipop to her chest. A feisty one stood in her place, not taking no for an answer. Her brother had obviously failed in her education somewhere along the way.

She tried to push down my hood with her free hand to expose my hair and face, but I quickly grabbed that hand too, putting us at a stalemate, both hands bound. _Hey, even though I'm not all that strong, I can at least stop a shadowpriest from jerking my hood down, okay? Charlotte, give me some more credit than this._ After getting thwarted, she stomped her feet like a spoiled child.

"Why won't you look at me?" she begged. "Why do I feel like you're not looking at me?"

 _Asking a blind man to look at you is impossible!_

Suddenly, I felt the dark element swirl around us, gathering at an alarming rate— _wait, don't tell me it's Charlotte?_ —and then a boom!

All thoughts of using psychic magic had flown from my mind. It hadn't even occurred to me. The entire private booth had exploded, leaving a gaping hole in the wall of the establishment. The table between us was no more, and the same fate had befallen the roast pig that I had been enjoying. There was no way the restaurant was going to serve us dessert now, and a perfectly fine pig had been wasted.

"You…" I said. _Your education has really failed! How can you waste perfectly good food like this?_

All of a sudden, in a whirl of wind element, Roland appeared between us and forcibly removed Charlotte's hands from me.

 _Thank the God of Light, the cavalry has arrived!_

Roland backed up, pushing me behind him, putting a large distance between us and Charlotte, who was now cradling her wrist. She stared at Roland in disbelief.

"You should have called for me," Roland said to me.

I gave a shrug. Things had happened too fast. Thankfully, Roland was quite the observer himself and didn't need me to clue him in about when to make his grand entrance this time.

Even if the sudden increase in dark element hadn't drawn Roland's attention, the explosion surely had, and now that I was paying attention to my surroundings more, I could tell how abruptly the explosion ended just around our booth. Roland must have done something to keep the damage contained while I was still distracted.

Phew, I was right to bring Roland along to help me eavesdrop, even though the eavesdropping part failed pretty hard. Even with how little experience I had sharing a private meal with a cute girl, even I knew that this was not how such meals normally went!

"Sun, her eyes are completely black," Roland commented.

Black eyes.

I nearly wanted to plant my face in my hands.

 _Dear God of Light, are you playing a joke on me? Why can't I enjoy a peaceful meal with a cute girl? Why does it have to involve missing memories, explosions, and stupid identity stuff?_

She had black eyes, just like that time I was overtaken by the dark element in the Valley of Trizer. I had not thought that accepting the lunch invitation of a cute shadowpriest would lead me to finding one of the other demon king candidates. With eyes like those, I'd have to be stupid not to understand that she was a demon candidate just like me. No wonder Awaitsun didn't know about her. She and Stephen must have been hiding the information from him. _Is Stephen even Charlotte's actual brother?_

The question was… why? Why had Charlotte and Stephen kept it such a secret? Wouldn't the Cathedral of the Shadow God support their own shadowpriest as the next demon king instead of the spokesperson of the neighboring religion? Surely Awaitsun had not thought that Charlotte would be someone who would destroy half the world as the demon king? He had thought so highly of her! No one would have predicted that she would nearly destroy half of a private booth in a restaurant, but even that was a far cry from destroying half of the world.

"A creature of darkness?" Charlotte said slowly, taking measure of Roland. "A creature of darkness is protecting the Sun Knight? What's going on?"

Roland was disguised, his appearance his usual one as the Hell Knight, but I was not surprised that she could tell he was not human, even if she could not tell exactly what he was. His dark element levels must be off the charts.

 _See, Charlotte? I can even have a death lord become the 38th Hell Knight. There would have been no problems getting a "cleric" who could not use holy light into our ranks._ She truly could have become the first cleric of the Holy Temple to be a master of the dark element. We could have used such an expert among us.

 _And I bet you thought you could not be friends with the Sun Knight if it were known that you were a demon king candidate. But you could not be any more wrong about that. If, as the Sun Knight, I declared that all apples were to be called tomatoes, then that's the way things would be from then on._

"Charlotte, those eyes of yours and that power you just showed, I know you're a demon king candidate," I said, making up my mind, fingering the Eternal Tranquility that rested against my chest. She didn't deny it. The destroyed room was plenty of evidence, and no one else would have eyes like hers.

Awaitsun wanted to support me under a simple claim that I was someone who cared for my subordinates and who would not destroy half of the world. Well, then, I had just as simple of a reason for my own decision of who I wished to support.

"Sun," Roland cautioned, but I just shook my head at him, mind made up. I placed my hand on his shoulder, urging him to let me pass.

Here was a girl who was going through the same things I was, stuck between the choice of staying a normal person or shouldering the burden of becoming the big bad guy, who was sadly misunderstood and would continue to be misunderstood, in order to save the entire world. Unlike me however, she was clearly an expert at gathering the dark element, given the state of this room.

It was not making her go crazy—well, not too crazy... blowing up a private booth in a restaurant because of some tantrum was not ideal behavior, but at the very least, she was not as crazy as I had been in the Valley of Trizer when I'd let the dark element take over, dying my hair and eyes black, as well as my heart. She was clearly still herself. All signs indicated that she would have a much better handle of the dark element than I ever would. Thus, she would be much less likely than me to be overwhelmed by the dark element and lose her mind.

"Do you wish to become the Demon King?" I asked. The choice was simple enough. This lovesick girl in front of me? She was definitely volatile enough to hurt people without a care, but she was not a lost cause, only misled. I did not doubt that she could walk the "shiny" path of light, if she so wished to accept my hand to pull her onto such a path. She cared for me, and I believed I could stop her from entertaining any thoughts of destroying half of the world. "If you swear never to harm the Twelve Holy Knights, Sun will support your bid to become the Demon King."

Roland shifted his weight, but he did not cut in, letting the conversation play out.

"Only the Twelve Holy Knights? What about other people? The citizens? Your king?" Charlotte asked, emphasizing each with a swing of her hands.

"Only the Twelve Holy Knights," I agreed, but she was right. I needed to add one more stipulation. "And the other demon king candidates."

Because hey, while the Twelve Holy Knights stipulation would protect me, it would not protect the third, unknown candidate. Going by how I was a decent human being and Charlotte was as well, the third demon king candidate was probably not all that different from us, also caught in this demon king business reluctantly. They could very well be an amazing candidate, but I had no clue who they were, so I couldn't throw my hat in with them. But that did not mean I wanted them to get hurt or killed to get them out of the race. There must be a way this could all be solved without anyone getting hurt. Finding out that method was why I'd accepted this lunch invitation in the first place.

Charlotte made a face. "How can I become the demon king without defeating the other candidates?"

"Defeating doesn't mean killing, Sun is sure of that." I said. "Do not tell Sun that there is no way for the other demon king candidates to safely give up their candidacy? Sun believes the Cathedral of the Shadow God must have a way for that to happen."

Now that I knew who one of the other candidates was, it should be much easier to get Awaitsun to reveal how I could give up my qualifications. There was no reason why he couldn't support Charlotte, unless he discriminated against girls.

"Then, will you support me?" she asked with narrowed eyes.

"Do you wish to become the Demon King?" I asked, once again.

"Do you want me to become the Demon King?" she asked in return.

"Yes," I said sincerely, hand held over my heart. "Sun meant every word of what he said. You are talented, and you have a pure heart. Sun dearly believes that you will be able to save us all. Though the Demon King may be someone immersed in darkness, only through taking on the world's darkness will we be led to light."

And though she may not know it now, if she so chose to become the Demon King, it would be the greatest gift she could ever give to me, worth all the lollipops in the world.

Charlotte sniffed, and I realized that the water element had begun welling up in her eyes once more. She opened her mouth but closed it several times before she swiped at her eyes and said, "Can I... really be someone so important? I'm not just an unlucky girl?"

"Of course you can be someone important," I said. "Sun's friends are always important. Besides, how can you be unlucky? You are the luckiest of all, bringing light back into our lives."

Her smile was a wobbly one. "We're friends?"

"Did Sun not give you a blueberry lollipop?" I asked. "I do not hand them out to just anyone, if you must know."

She smiled wider at that, and Roland's shoulders relaxed minutely.

I let my hand drop from the Eternal Tranquility. One day, I would let her know that I too was a demon king candidate, but for now, it was not quite the time to reveal my entire hand. We still had the third unknown candidate to consider.

For a single blueberry lollipop, I had found a way to continue being the Sun Knight and save the world at the same time. The demon king candidate I was supporting wasn't going to destroy half the world, and I was going to be able to shock Awaitsun with my support of the other demon king candidate.

 _Worth it._

In the end, we did not have any of the restaurant's expensive desserts, as the restaurant was righteously furious with us, but we did share the blueberry lollipop I had given to her. I closed my eyes, savoring the burst of sweetness, wondering what little Charlotte had felt all those years ago when she had tasted a blueberry lollipop for the first time.

Perhaps for her, that had been her first taste of friendship and hope, a taste she had never forgotten, a taste that I too cherished.

I did not need my eyes to know that the water element was now freely flowing down her face.

My choice was simple. I could support someone like this.

* * *

the end

 **A/N:** Hey, I'm back with another oneshot for the collection~. This one was actually the first one I started for the challenge, but both Grisia and Charlotte battled me the entire way while I wrote it. It helped when I realized that Charlotte just really wants to blow something up. So yeah, I do believe that Charlotte would have blown something up anyway even if Grisia went to lunch with her. The only difference here was that Roland was around to mitigate the damage. I bet she'll blow something else up when she learns that Grisia kept it a secret from her that he's also a demon king candidate.

Thanks for reading, and why not drop a review on your way out? Look forward to the next story in this collection~


	5. That Person Now Returned

New Horizons: a collection of LSK AUs

by Lucathia

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own the Legend of Sun Knight and make no profit from writing this.

* * *

 **That Person Now Returned**

 _Not long after Grisia assumes the position of the 38th Sun Knight, he spots a familiar face among the crowds—Roland, who has become a royal knight captain after disappearing from Grisia's life. However, trouble brews among the palace. This time around, is it Grisia's turn to look after Roland? Pre-canon AU. For the prompt, "Dead Character(s) Alive."_

 **A/N:** As this particular story is quite long, I have posted it in chapters for easier reading over at my Dreamwidth and AO3. You can also read it here as one long fic! Enjoy~. Warning for canon typical non-graphic mention of torture.

* * *

My teacher has always taught me that I should never let my stress bottle up, yet there were just too many stress factors the Sun Knight had to face every single day. For example, I could only ever record beauties out of the corner of my eyes. I had to walk as slowly as a tortoise to prevent my clothes from getting messed up. I must praise the God of Light every three sentences I speak. A benevolent, forgiving smile must be on my face at all times even when I don't feel an ounce of mercy. If I were to trip or fall, it had to happen gracefully. I had to stay out of direct sunlight, or else I'd have to increase the times I applied my facial mask. On and on the list went.

How could someone not feel stressed from all those demands? Certainly not me. So, in order to maintain the image of the perfect Sun Knight, I once again headed off to order a few undead creatures from Pink. A showy battle would certainly do wonders in converting more people to the Church of the God of Light, and I could take my stress out on those undead creatures while I was at it.

Of course, her services weren't cheap, but I had to bear with it for the sake of my sanity. I debated on asking Judgment to queue up at the dessert shop for me, but he would definitely question me if I were to ask him to buy me a strawberry lollipop instead of a blueberry one. If only Ice hadn't been sent on a mission! I could have asked him to make some lollipops instead. The lollipops he made were practically divine, and they were free and plentiful, too.

I selected a cloak, making sure to pull it on securely. A cloak was truly the most useful piece of garment for concealment. Even someone as eye-catching as I was would become just another passerby once I pulled the hood on. With the cloak fastened around me, I was no longer confined to the speed of a tortoise, free to stride down the road as I pleased. I was even free to look at all the beauties I wanted with no one the wiser!

 _Bless cloaks! Best invention ever!_

Sadly, though the cloak had many uses and alleviated many of my stress factors, it could not help me magically gain a spot at the front of the line at the dessert shop. I queued up at the back, dismayed by the number of people in line. _This is a popular shop, but really? Don't you people have anything better to do than line up for desserts in the middle of the day? You there! Yes you, Mr. Tall Buff Guy. I don't believe you're lining up for yourself. You must be trying to impress a girl! Damn you!_

I tapped my foot, already regretting that I hadn't asked Judgment after all. If he were here, he could waltz right up to the front of the line and glower at anyone who dared to make a comment about his cutting in line. But if I tried to pull the same stunt, I would only get grabby hands tugging my hair and pulling my sleeves, as if people would get blessed just from the contact.

I flicked my eyes up in resignation. Even then, it was still worth a try. It was better than staying in this never-ending line. The sun would be down before I even got a lollipop, and I really didn't want to visit the necromancer after nightfall. That was just plain stupid.

Mind made up, I forced myself to keep my foot from tapping out my impatience, making sure I had my composure back. Then, I walked several paces forward. Just as I heard someone say, "Wait a minute, the end of the line is that way—" I pulled off my hood, golden hair spilling down my back as I shook it free.

I turned my head, a gentle smile ready to charm the disbeliever into forgetting how I was trying to cut in line, but my smile nearly faltered.

 _Why did my smile nearly falter? That's because the dissenter is that tall, buff guy! Who does he think he is? Does he think it's cool to play some upright citizen? Is he showing off for his girlfriend, huh? I bet he is!_

I deliberately smiled even wider, daring him to say something back to this face. He opened his mouth and then closed it, as if he didn't know what to say, eventually settling on silence. _Good. The citizens are still plenty in awe of the Sun Knight, despite that I'm fairly new to the position._

I made my way to the front of the line, smiling the entire time. When I got there, I inclined my head apologetically and said to the woman who was first in line by the door, "The benevolence of the God of Light has brought Sun here today, bidding Sun to acquire a delicacy created to bring joy to the hearts of all children. Sun needs but one to share the warmth of the God of Light with this child and will trouble you no further after the deed is completed. You have my gratitude for your generous heart."

The woman stared blankly up at me. I smiled, taking it to mean her agreement to my suggestion of letting me go ahead of her to enter the shop. After all, I only needed a single lollipop. It would take no time at all to make my purchase... If only this crowd hadn't suddenly formed around me!

"Sun Knight! Can you grant my child a name?"

"Sun Knight! Can you..."

"Sun Knight!"

 _Dear God of Light, can you all just back up three steps? This is why I should have just asked Judgment to come in my place. None of you would dare to trap Judgment like this!_

I smiled widely and said, "I bestow upon your baby the name 'Trinary.' May she grow up to appreciate the beauty of threes." _Come on, take three steps away from me already! Three is a beautiful number!_

The mother looked at me, stumped, but then smiled and held her baby's hand up to wave it at me. Of course, just as she did so, the baby giggled and reached out to grab my hair.

 _Ouch..._ I could only keep smiling.

Beyond the crowd, a platoon of royal knights in their eye-catching lobster red passed by, several curious glances shot my way. But that was the extent of their response. None of them broke away from the group to come check out the reason for the crowd. _Come on, aren't you royal knights? Or is your only job to protect the fat pig king and his family? If you see your Sun Knight in trouble, you should rescue him!_

Among the royal knights, a tall knight with sandy brown hair had also looked my way, an odd expression on his face. It was not a curious one like the others, but more... amused, though that was not quite right either. I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

 _Still, how dare he laugh at the Sun Knight!_

He shook his head and walked on ahead of the others without looking back, the royal knights naturally falling in step behind him. He totally had the look of someone who was pretty high up in rank. With that kind of face and that kind of commanding aura, there was no way he hadn't climbed the ranks at an exponential rate.

The sight of his back turned to me as he walked away gave me a sense of déjà vu. I must have seen him somewhere before, maybe on one of my visits to the palace. Yet, that didn't feel quite right. I almost frowned but remembered in time that I was standing in the middle of a giant crowd of people.

I fixed my smile back in place.

By the time I finally disentangled myself from the crowd, the sun was already hanging lower, and a ton of people behind me in line had already gotten their sweets and seemed ready to reenact another round of "let's bombard the Sun Knight."

 _Thanks, but no thanks!_

I pushed the door to the dessert shop open and walked over to the counter as fast as I could, to a thankfully short line inside. Sadly, "fast" was still the pace of a tortoise. Just... a fast tortoise. Then, I was finally able to make my purchase of one strawberry lollipop after wasting more time indulging the crowd than I would have spent if I had lined up properly.

 _Finally!_

By now, I had put all thoughts of the strangely familiar royal knight out of my mind, instead focused on finding Pink before sunset.

He, however, had never forgotten me, not even after all these years.

* * *

After vanquishing the undead creatures I had Pink summon for me, the city sung endless praise of the Sun Knight. I had put on quite a performance, dragging out the fight beautifully, before finally dispatching the two pitiful dead knights she had summoned, to great applause from the bystanders. We were in such a time of peace that even such a small fight was met with applause and cheers.

Thanks to that performance, the next worship service boomed with attendees. The Hall of Praise, the Church of the God of Light's largest building, was pretty much packed to the brim. I walked forward to the stage, happy that I had managed to bring in such a large crowd, as more people meant more donations, yet it also meant I had to sing in front of way too many people!

Storm walked by my side, winking non-stop at all the girls in the audience. There were so many people in attendance that he had not a moment of respite to his winking.

"This is all your fault, Sun. I never want to get paired with you again for these worship services!" Storm muttered under his breath.

Meanwhile, I was waving slowly at all the people to acknowledge their presence, making sure that each wave was no faster than the speed at which I combed my hair, and I'll have you know that I comb my hair extremely slowly and gently to avoid pulling any hairs out. _The Sun Knight, losing too much hair and going bald? That's just preposterous!_

Now, as for why Storm was bemoaning getting partnered with me for worship services, it was because somehow the weeks we conducted the services together always boomed with attendees, so much that the Pope gleefully signed us up for tons of rotations together. Any week that I led usually had an uptick in attendance that I called the "Sun Knight effect," but with Storm in the mix, somehow that number would skyrocket even more.

It made me want to go and steal the Pope's list to change the rotation. We, the Twelve Holy Knights, took turns leading the weekly worship services in pairs, but that did not mean I had to partner up with Storm all the time and face such immense crowds. _Why can't I get paired with Metal? No one ever attends his services!_

I mean, converting more worshipers into believers of the God of Light was my duty, but this was just taking it too far.

The only times when the crowds were worse was when all of the Twelve Holy Knights joined together to conduct the worship service. Thank the God of Light that those worship services only happened during special events, such as someone from the royal family getting married, or someone from the royal family having a birthday, or someone from the royal family going on their first hunting trip, or someone from the royal family... You get the point. The Pope called for special services with any reason he could so that he could squeeze donations from the worshipers to their last ducat.

Storm and I took our positions at the right side of the stage. Soon after, the Pope welcomed us all, with words from the Priest of Brilliance and the Priest of Radiance, praising the God of Light and extolling the deeds of the previous generations of Twelve Holy Knights. Following that, the clerics in the back began a chorus of "la la las" before Storm and I then opened our hymn books and began singing.

 _Is that a shriek I hear? I must be hearing things? Why would anyone react to our singing that way?_

Storm's voice and mine blended well, with mine slightly higher than Storm's. We were considered the better singers among the Twelve Holy Knights. I know I practiced a ton because my teacher would never let me live it down if I could not sing gracefully, but I wonder what made Storm practice so much. I glanced over, immediately receiving my answer.

 _Ah, he's pretending he's so into the song that his eyes have closed on their own._ Such a pretense meant he didn't need to be winking at anyone while we sang, a brief respite for his eyes.

 _I hope he doesn't fall asleep._ I probably would if I closed my eyes while singing.

The problem with singing was that it was _so_ boring. Hymns did require us to inject holy light into the song as we sang, but that came so naturally to me that it was like breathing and therefore truly quite boring. As I sang, I let my eyes wander, since this was the perfect time to record some beauties. _What better way to stave off the boredom?_ There was nothing else I could do while stuck up here singing anyway.

As I looked for a suitable beauty to record, my eyes were instead drawn to someone standing to the side behind the crowds, leaning against the wall with his eyes closed and arms crossed. Unlike Storm who was pretending that he was super into the song, this guy was probably truly captivated. Although his expression appeared troubled, as the song went on, the holy light from the song seemed to soothe his worries, his expression relaxing.

He was dressed in lobster red—a royal knight. No, not just any royal knight. He was a royal knight captain.

There were several royal knights in attendance, as was always the case with worship services, since the royal family always attended, even if not the entire family. Today, it was the princess in attendance, which I did not mind all too much. The crowds were much more pleasant during times when the princess joined us instead of the fat pig king. Whenever the fat pig king showed up, we'd have to be on the lookup for riots, and there was no guarantee that we could safely finish any songs. None of the royal knights would be able to close their eyes to experience the song like this.

Though there were several royal knights here for the security of the nobles and the princess, the knight by the wall seemed to be off duty for the moment. He stood separately from the rest, as if he were just another person among the crowd, but clad in that lobster red and bearing a height that was at least a head taller than all those around him, there was no way he wouldn't be eye-catching.

But none of those reasons were why my eyes had been drawn to him.

This was the knight from the crowd the other day. He was just so familiar, yet I hadn't been able to place him then, and I couldn't now either. I'm not trying to boast or anything, but I have a really good memory, to the point that I can recall a spell just from seeing it once, so I should have been able to recognize him right away. I knew this guy, and not because of all my visits to the palace. He wasn't just another colleague. My mind didn't equate him with a royal knight. I knew him outside of that lobster red. _He is... He is..._

Just as I thought that, I finished singing the current verse, and he slowly opened his eyes. His gaze sought me out, his expression serious, bringing to mind the serious boy who had been my childhood friend, only that face was now sharper, belonging to a grown man. That change was why I hadn't recognized him right away. I somehow had not considered that the royal knight would be someone from my past. He was all grown up now, when the last time I saw him, he had only been half this height, vanishing from my life after I was announced as the next Sun Knight instead of him.

We had all thought it would be him.

 _Roland._

I almost forgot to start singing again. Storm had already started on the next verse. I joined in as quickly as I could, but I was still a beat late, no doubt earning me a questioning glance from Storm, but I didn't turn to check his response. I had my eyes trained on Roland. I didn't want to lose him among the crowd, though that would actually be no easy feat to accomplish.

Seeing my attention on him, he inclined his head, the smallest of smiles gracing his face, sending a pang to my heart.

 _Where have you been all these years?_

He was clearly a royal knight now, and a captain no less. _After the end of the Sun Knight selections, was that where you went?_ He did have such good swordsmanship. I imagine he must have passed their trials with flying colors.

 _Have you been so close this entire time?_

When the singing finally ended and we began the part that truly mattered, the asking of donations, I had to plaster on one of my brightest smiles when all I wanted to do was barge into the crowd to accost Roland. But I couldn't leave, and Storm even gave me a jab to get my head back in the game. With the sheer amount of attendees we had today, the donations similarly exploded. Normally, I would be quite gleefully counting the ducats that came pouring in to make sure that the Pope gave us our fair share later on, but with my long estranged friend among the crowd, I was finding it immensely hard to focus on the task at hand. By the time we finished, Roland was no longer among the those still milling about.

But that mattered little. Now that I knew he was a royal knight captain, I could easily seek him out.

Yet, I did not.

* * *

I brought two stools with me to the toilet next to the Judge's Complex and settled down to wait for my good friend, who was not supposed to be my friend, to arrive after his interrogations for the day. While I waited, I daydreamed about what kinds of desserts he might bring with him this time. _Might it be blueberry cake? Or blueberry pie? Ooo, or maybe blueberry shaved ice?_ Ice had wanted to try his hand at blueberry shaved ice now that the weather was warming up. _Oh, but Ice is still on his mission._

I could only bid the idea of blueberry shaved ice farewell with tear-filled eyes.

Judgment arrived just as I was wiping at my eyes, to which I merely said, "blueberry shaved ice" when he raised his eyebrows.

He shook his head at me, handed over the basket he had prepared, and then rushed over to puke. He had the timing down pat and never endangered the food, no doubt thanks to all the practice he had at rushing to the toilet and puking during our trainee years.

While he was puking, I dug through the basket. I was happily munching on a blueberry muffin by the time he was done throwing up and had come over to wash his hands and face.

"Mrffin?" I said with my mouth full, offering him the basket.

He shook his head again and sat down. I shrugged and grabbed another muffin for myself. It had been worth a try. Now, he couldn't blame me for not offering.

We exchanged our usual "pleasantries" about the God of Light's benevolence and the God of Light's severity, color coming back to Judgment's face as we spoke. _Good._ He looked much better than how he had looked when he had rushed in. I mean, his complexion had been bad, even worse than those dead knights I had fought some days ago, and when Judgment had a bad complexion, he looked downright scary, like he wanted to squash you like a bug.

See, I was doing everyone a huge favor, making sure our Judgment Knight was healthy and hale. There would definitely be fewer cases of servants fainting or running away crying if Judgment got his weekly quota of heart-to-hearts with his good friend, namely me.

"Why have you been terrorizing the palace maids lately, Sun?" Judgment suddenly asked.

"Hey, I don't terrorize people! That's your specialty," I complained. I had just been thinking about it, too. _I'm not you, okay, Judgment? People don't faint or run away crying because of me!_ "And how do you know I've been at the palace?"

"Storm told me," Judgment said.

 _Storm, you don't have to report everything to Judgment, come on! Is he your leader, or am I?_

"Those maids have been crying to him about how you're putting too much pressure on them. They think of it as sudden scrutiny from you. With the Sun Knight always prowling about, they feel that they must be perfect at their job and must not leave any inch of the palace dirty."

 _...Is that why they've been in such a dusting frenzy?_

One had even been trembling and trying to hide behind her friend when she spotted me, furtively pulling her sleeves down over her arms. _Surely I'm not so frightening? Seriously, it's not like I'm Judgment! Since when have servants been afraid of me, this benevolent, always smiling Sun Knight?_

Perhaps even talking to them gave them a scare, as I was one of the highest authorities around. From my experience, no one paid servants all that much attention, and they were probably used to it. Some might even consider them "invisible," as they were always there in the background to help make sure things run smoothly while not being obtrusive themselves.

If any of them went missing, the nobility would likely not even notice, as there were plenty of other servants around to take their place. With how good they were at their jobs of staying out of the limelight, they were some of the best sources of information. Knowing that Roland was a royal knight, of course one of the first things I did was ask around the palace servants about this long estranged friend of mine who may or may not hate me.

I waved my hand in the air and said, "That's a good thing then. Slacking off isn't a virtue. May the God of Light shine upon these hard-working maids."

From what I heard from the maids, Roland sounded like he hadn't changed much since he was a kid. The maids didn't see him around all that often, as he was always practicing his sword at the training grounds by himself, but boy did they enjoy watching him train whenever they managed to find him.

The friend of that trembling maid even recounted how the maids had begun congregating during times he trained. At first, Roland hadn't paid them any attention, but he soon began training at all different kinds of hours and several different locations, making it much harder for the maids to catch him practicing.

 _Roland is still a huge sword idiot, huh? And still as diligent as ever with his training._ If Earth had been the one with a bunch of maids flocking to watch him train, he'd be preening under all that attention. But not Roland. He'd much prefer practicing where no one would bother him or notice his effort.

He still sounded much like the Roland I had known, who had helped me fend off bullies, chase away dogs, climb over the walls to buy me desserts... But that was also the same Roland who had turned and left without saying goodbye.

It was very possible that he might no longer want to have anything to do with me.

"Say, Judgment, if you had a friend among the Judgment Knight candidates, but they stopped talking to you after you got chosen, only to suddenly show up in front of you again, would you try to reach out to them?" I asked.

Judgment gave me a look. "There was no one I would possibly consider a friend among those candidates. Why do you think my teacher was so intent on having me join the selections?" Before I could tell him to forget what I said then, he continued, "But I know that's not your real question. Are you wondering about Roland?"

I shot up from the stool, the legs of my seat clattering. "How do you know about Roland? Are you a mind reader?!" _You... You tapeworm!_

"All you've been doing this week is ask around about him. I grew curious and did some of my own investigations," Judgment said.

"Oh," I said and sat back down, somewhat relieved. It wasn't that Judgment had transcended and become a super tapeworm. His occupational disease had kicked in, like always. Whenever there was something fishy going on, there was no way he could leave it alone. I really couldn't get anything past him. Thank the God of Light I wasn't a criminal under his judgment.

I propped my elbows on my knees and rested my chin on my folded hands, waiting for him to elaborate.

"It seems that Roland has been doing some of his own investigations lately." Judgment said.

 _Judgment investigating me investigating Roland investigating someone else... Well, well._

"Go on," I murmured.

* * *

I sat by the side of the fountain, hood pulled over my head. It was quite a sunny day, so wearing a hood wasn't even all that strange. None of the passersby came to bother me, leaving me to enjoy the peaceful spray of the fountain, the water creating a slight mist as it cascaded down.

From what I had observed, a certain group of royal knights always passed through the plaza at this time. Roland never failed to patrol with them, responsible to a fault. I settled to wait, and as I had expected, the royal knights soon approached, the lobster red of their uniform announcing their presence even from a distance. At the front of the group was a rather young knight, but all the others were following him.

For once, Roland was nowhere to be seen, despite the fact that his entire squad was present.

 _Roland, I came here to meet you, not that try hard young knight over there!_

I had prepared myself to cross paths with him only to be sent back to square one. _How are you going to make up for all the wasted effort and mental preparation?_

"Hele, what are our orders today?" one of the knights asked the try hard young knight at the front, whose name was... _Hele? Heely? Heel? All right, from now on, I deem you "Foot." A whole foot is better than just a heel. So much easier to remember too._

Foot gestured around him and replied, "We're to patrol our usual routes and then return to training."

"So, just like when Captain Roland is here?" someone else asked.

"Yes, until Captain Roland returns from his mission, we will follow our usual routine," Foot answered.

What a group of diligent subordinates. If I were out on a mission, my platoon members would most definitely slack off. _Sigh, just where did I go wrong with them? But thank you, Foot, you answered my question very well._

I stood up and dusted myself off. I would have to try again another day.

* * *

As the Sun Knight, I had my skin whitening routine down to an art. It was rather time consuming to mix the ingredients, apply the goop, and steam myself, but it could be relaxing—sometimes I even hummed to myself—as long as no one knocked on my door!

 _It's a curse, I'm telling you. A curse! I'm cursed to always get disturbed when I'm applying my facial masks, just like now._

"May Sun ask which brother has come to share the God of Light's murmurings with Sun tonight?" I asked, still hoping that they might decide to go away after all. I'd gone to the plaza several more times with no luck. Roland was still away on his mission. It was an awfully long mission that his subordinates seemed to know very little about.

While I had worn a cloak each time to the plaza, there was still no guarantee that my face hadn't caught some of that scorching sun, so this private facial mask time was of utter importance. _Go away already, person at the door!_

"Sun," the person said, and my annoyance disappeared immediately.

Just hearing that person say my name made my eyes shine. "Wait right there, dear brother. Sun will be right with you!"

Why was I so eager to wash this goop off when I normally hated to get interrupted? Well, let me tell you now that the person currently at my door was someone that I did not mind washing this green goop off for, as I had been waiting for his return this entire time! My personal baker was finally back! I could totally reapply my facial mask later. What Ice was bringing me was much more important.

"Brother Ice," I greeted with a genuine smile as I opened the door.

Ice gave me a nod, and as always, made no comment about the wait.

I stuck out my hand.

If this were Judgment, he'd be rolling his eyes at me or making some kind of remark, but Ice was too nice for that. He dropped a little bag into my waiting hand. I opened it as fast as I could and popped one of the chocolates right into my mouth.

 _So, so sweet!_

"Dear Brother Ice, Sun is delighted to see your safe return from your mission," I said once the chocolate was gone. After all, it would not do for the Sun Knight to speak with chocolate still in his mouth. _And next time, no more sending Ice out on away missions! I'm going to die from sugar deprivation like that!_ The rest of the Holy Temple had suffered in much the same way from missing their desserts and breads, but I doubted that anyone had suffered as much as I had. _I think I even lost weight!_

"My platoon and I are back," Ice reported, his single sentence kicking my brain into overdrive.

Sweets made my mind work _so_ much better.

* * *

The question was, what kind of "mission" had Roland been sent on? Now, while it was certainly not a big deal for a royal knight to be sent on a mission, that he had been sent without any of his subordinates was quite another matter altogether. Even the stingy Pope allowed Ice to bring his platoon with him on his mission. I could not imagine that the royal knights would be stingier than the Pope and would not allow Roland to bring at least a few of his subordinates with him. Knights worked in groups, after all, be they royal knights or holy knights.

Also, while I was certainly someone people liked to "impress" given that I was the Sun Knight, I was still not someone who would frighten the maids into a dusting frenzy, and neither was I someone who would make a maid tremble at the sight of me.

I collected Storm on my way to the palace, and we walked to investigate the palace training grounds under the cover of organizing our patrol routes with the royal knights for our next parade. They had several training grounds, some more remote than others. Storm's winks proved quite useful, as the maid we waylaid swooned and babbled easily about which training grounds Roland preferred. _There's too big a discrepancy between Storm asking her and me asking her. What gives?_

In any case, she led us to several training grounds, as it seemed that Roland liked to keep them guessing so that he could give the slip to his audience. _Maybe I have influenced Roland after all... Roland, sneaky?_ It was unthinkable, really, of the Roland I'd known. _Then again, it has been more than a decade since I last saw him. I can't really say I know him anymore, can I?_

When we stopped at a fairly remote training ground, the maid looked all around us, checking that we were alone, before facing us and saying with a quiet voice, "I always come to watch him here."

She opened her mouth again but snapped it shut right away, looking every bit like she had something more to say to us but didn't dare to do so. I'd have wondered if she weren't a secret admirer of Roland's if not for that frightened look on her face, like she was afraid someone might jump out of the bushes and grab her for talking to us.

Storm noticed her hesitancy as well. I was right to bring him along, as he could cut straight to the point when I could not.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

She twisted her hands for several seconds before finally saying, "My friend..."

I smiled at her, encouraging her to continue. "The God of Light shines upon us today. There is no need for hesitancy in sharing your worries with Sun and his brother."

 _Whatever happens, the Church of the God of Light will back you up._

She nodded and said, "Sir Roland... when we came to watch him practice his sword, he took notice of my friend..."

 _Oh? Roland taking notice of a girl? Has he actually grown up to be a Casanova? Is the world coming to an end?_

"She was limping." The maid immediately dispelled my guess about Roland with a whisper and twisted her hand some more. _Twist, twist twist._ "I can't believe I didn't notice."

First, a maid trying to cover her arms with her sleeves. Now, a maid that was limping. Either they were the very same unfortunate maid, or...

I shared a look with Storm. He gave me a nod. He would look into this some more. Storm was dependable and scary like that. If you wanted to uncover any deeply buried secrets, Storm was your man. It was definitely the height of foolishness to ever get on his bad side. Who wants to have all their secrets aired out in the open for people to laugh at? Definitely not me, not that I have any deep, dark secrets... that he can tell anyone about without implicating himself! _But I won't put it past Storm to make people believe that I love apples to death or something! Bleh!_

In any case, now that Storm was on it, the truth would definitely come to light.

"Is Sir Roland all right?" the maid blurted. "Is he... all because we..." She buried her face in her trembling hands.

Storm patted her on the back to console her. The world hadn't come to an end, but now I was sure something more sinister was going on. I let Storm murmur comforting words to her, something about how she and her friend could come to the Holy Temple for help, and how we would keep their identities anonymous, while my mind pondered through the possibilities.

See, like I'd said before, people usually don't pay much attention to the servants. When even a sword idiot like Roland took notice of his spectators, something had to be up. He had noticed something, and that something must be the reason for his disappearance.

Yes, disappearance.

He had been investigating something he shouldn't, the enemy much too powerful for a single royal knight to triumph over, captain or not.

I was pretty sure by now that he had not been sent on a mission. Even his subordinates had no idea what kind of "mission" he was on. While Roland could have gone off on his own on some undercover mission, what was wrong was happening right here in the palace, so where could he have traveled to? It didn't make sense.

He had taken notice, and because of that, someone had made him vanish.

I gripped my cape, for if I did not, I would probably be twisting my hands by now, just like what the maid was doing earlier.

Despite the warmth of the sun, I felt chilled.

* * *

Someone who could make the maids too frightened to reveal to the Sun Knight their abuse and who could make a royal knight captain like Roland disappear, while making everyone else believe that he was on a mission, narrowed down the culprit quite a lot. Storm thought the same, soon giving rattling off a list of people who had access to the palace and had a habit of torturing others. He hadn't even needed to look into it, already knowing it by heart.

"So many have lost their way?" I could not help blurting after hearing his report. While I had never had a high opinion of the nobles, it had not even crossed my mind that so many would take pleasure in torturing others. _Just how is that even noble?_ "Which among those could make a royal knight captain disappear?"

"The king or Baron Gerland have the highest authority among those aristocrats," was Storm's answer.

 _That good for nothing fat pig king! He's going to be the death of this kingdom._

It mattered little whether it was the king or whether it was Baron Gerland. _Perhaps no one would notice them torturing the servants. But making a royal knight captain disappear? Making my friend disappear?_ Whoever it was, they were going down for messing with the wrong person.

* * *

There was a myriad of secret passages underneath the palace, so numerous that I was quite in disbelief that the palace hadn't collapsed altogether from all the digging that had been done beneath its rooms. They were, however, perfect for sneaking about. Even the shiny Sun Knight could go unnoticed when traversing the palace through the passages, as long as I donned my trustworthy cloak.

The cobwebs though, ugh. I'd have to give this cloak a thorough washing after this. My hair too had not escaped the reach of the cobwebs.

I came across several trap doors in the passages, a serious security risk, giving intruders too many ways in, but I moved passed them all, as none of them led to the room I had in mind. When I finally reached the door that led to the room I wished to investigate, I pushed against it, only managing to lift it by the slightest. There must be something heavy laid upon it. No matter how I pushed, I could not open it.

I'd have to return with more manpower or use the actual door, going about it in broad daylight perhaps, borrowing the Church of the God of Light's influence. While I could blast the trapdoor open, that was not the least bit helpful in staying undiscovered. The palace had its own mages, and they would certainly discover any flashy magic used below ground, not to say all the rubble I'd leave behind or the noise I'd make.

Still, even while stuck in this cobweb-filled passage, I was close enough to do some investigating. I closed my eyes, extending my sensing ability instead, trying to get a feel of whether there was anyone inside the room. I mean, I certainly didn't need to close my eyes to do this, but having them closed made things easier to parse.

My sensing ability was not a common ability, which was why my teacher cautioned me to keep it an utmost secret. It would only benefit me to have my opponents underestimate me. At first, I had only been able to sense a small area around me, but the more I used it, the wider the range I could manage. Nowadays, sensing what was in the next room over was no big deal. Though it could still give me away if any mages attuned to it were close by, at least this was not as eye-catching as blasting the trapdoor apart.

There was no one in the room. _Phew. I should have checked before I even attempted to lift the door. Good thing the room is actually empty._ I extended my sensing some more, coming upon a secret chamber behind the full-length mirror on the wall. Yet, my sensing could not make out the shape of the chamber behind it, as if it were shrouded from my sight, which was beyond suspicious. The owner of the room was no mage, and I doubted he had even thought there was a need to hide the room from a mage's sight. _Why then is the room hidden from my sensing?_

 _Is there another person involved in this?_

* * *

"I certainly don't mind playing the bad guy," Judgment told me when I detailed to him what I needed from him, "but are you sure of this?"

I wasn't, and I hated that feeling. I never headed into battle so unprepared. That just wasn't how I did things. If I weren't 200% confident, I'd at least be 100% sure before I attempted anything. Yet this time, there was still something I was missing, but I couldn't tell what it was. However, this just couldn't wait.

Although Storm had used his reputation and charmed plenty of maids, learning from them that there was a startling number of them who had been tortured before, it was also true that none of them had gone missing or died in the process of getting tortured. However, Roland was not a maid, and therefore, there was no telling if his treatment would be the same. It had already veered off course, with him disappearing like this.

He could be tortured right at this moment. He could be dead. All because I'd taken too long to notice him, to seek him out. He'd been well enough to make fun of me in front of the dessert shop not long ago, and now, he was possibly dead? That was just wrong.

"I'm ninety percent sure," I answered.

"Then, what about the remaining ten percent?" Judgment asked.

"The remaining ten percent says to do it anyway, or else I'll regret it my entire life," I responded.

Judgment gave a nod. "Then, let's go. It matters little whether or not I upset the royal family. They have a poor opinion of me in the first place."

Indeed, the entire royal family thought of Judgment as the devil. They would not put it past him to be audacious enough to arrest someone from the royal family, which I had just asked of him. We had plenty of evidence from the maid's testimonies and the scars that were still on their bodies. Even if the royal family bought all of them off, there was still the last lead that I was ninety percent certain we would find in that secret chamber that had been shrouded from my sight.

Which was why I was going to rope Roland's squad in as "witnesses." They deserved to know what had happened to their captain, after all.

Everyone knew the Sun Knight and the Judgment Knight didn't "get along," so even if the royal family had a bone to pick about Judgment suddenly arresting one of them, the Church of the God of Light could play it off as the Judgment Knight acting on his own, leaving me and the Pope free to seek a different way to keep the royal family in check.

All it required was for Judgment and me to put on a little act.

* * *

"Step aside, Sun Knight, this has nothing to do with you," Judgment said flatly, robes billowing about him.

"Judgment Knight, cease this folly. The God of Light's benevolence teaches us not to let enmity brew in our hearts. We must love all our brethren and open our hearts to forgiveness no matter how far from the path one has strayed," I said.

"Forgiveness? Sun Knight, it would behoove you to open your mind to the God of Light's severity. I am afraid that the one I seek has strayed too far from the path. You cannot hope to save this one. To hope in such a case is willful ignorance, the height of folly. Do not stop me," Judgment warned.

I kept up with his strides, my clothes getting messed up by how quickly we were walking. _Would it hurt you to slow down, Judgment?_ I really wanted to just snap back, No, you! but that wasn't something the Sun Knight would say, so I could only swallow those words back down.

"Judgment Knight, it is not too late to turn around. You do not want to do this. To continue on is to turn your back on the God of Light!"

Around us, a sizable crowd had formed, watching as the two of us pretty much stormed through the palace. We caused such a racket that the royal knights had even come over to check up on what was going on, and just like I had planned, Roland's squad was among those who had hurried over. However, none of them dared to step up to stop us.

I shared a glance with Judgment. Our plan was going smoothly so far. Everyone knew that the Sun Knight and the Judgment Knight were the "worst" of enemies. By playing up to expectations, we had easily stormed right into the palace and confused everyone. Not only that, now everyone would believe that the Sun Knight and the Judgment Knight disagreed. This was not something endorsed by the Church of the God of Light.

It was time to continue on to the next step. Judgment blinked twice in succession to show that he had gotten my message. He then said, "Turn back? To turn back now is to trample over the God of Light's teachings, for no evildoer should go unpunished!"

"Which evildoer has angered you so, Judgment Knight?" I shook my head, as if I couldn't believe him.

By now, we had reached the royal quarters, which were guarded by royal knights, and quite an impressive crowd had followed us, trying to stop us to no avail. Foot had tried to interrupt us multiple times, but we just spoke right over him. Judgment looked like he had every intention to storm right past the palace guards, but even he had to stop when they crossed their spears in front of the entrance to the hallway to block us.

"Halt!" one of the guards called out, essentially stopping Judgment from "answering" my question as well. "You may not pass without permission."

Judgment just glared at him, causing the guard to take a step back involuntarily, but to the guard's credit, he quickly shuffled forward again and pretended he hadn't been cowed. The full force of Judgment's glare was truly nothing to scoff at. It was deadly enough to make people faint and had certainly made no small number of people flee or cry.

"You dare to stand in the way of justice?" Judgment growled. "Do you know who you are speaking with?"

The guard visibly gulped and gripped the spear tighter. "Yes sir, Judgment Knight, sir."

 _That's one too many "sirs" in that sentence just now._

"'Yes,' you dare to stand in the way of justice?" Judgment flung back at him and glared even harder.

"N-No! I mean, yes, I know you are the Judgment Knight..." the guard's voice grew quiet.

I would pity the guard, but there were more dire matters at hand. I smiled a gentle smile at the guard and made sure my eyes showed deep grief. I placed my hand over my heart and said, "Kind knight, would you let Sun and his brother pass? There have been rumors going around the palace and the Holy Temple that Sun and Judgment Knight must get to the bottom of. Sun does not believe that anyone here could have lost their way so much, but no matter how much Sun tries, he has been unable to persuade Judgment Knight to believe the same. I am afraid that only by investigating in person will Judgment Knight be able to see the error of his ways."

The guard just stared at me, completely dazzled by my smile and confused by the word vomit. I opened my mouth, about to repeat my request, when a voice sounded behind the guard.

"What is all this fuss?"

We all turned to see the crown prince walking toward us with a frown on his face. The guards quickly saluted him.

 _Perfect._

Ever the diligent son, I had expected him to come out to see what was up. _As for the king? Fat chance he'd get off his lazy bum to do anything productive._

Judgment crossed his arms. "Your insolent guards insist on obstructing justice."

I turned and covered my mouth to prevent laughter from escaping through my lips. _Oh dear, that was a close call. "Your insolent guards insist on obstructing justice! Hmph!" Okay, he didn't say "hmph," but dear God of Light, Judgment, are you trying to kill me here with that sullen look?_

Judgment gave me an unimpressed glare.

"Cough," I said into my glove.

"Sun Knight, are you well, sir?" the guard asked.

I held a hand up and said, "Sun is well, only troubled. If the truth of this matter is not ascertained, Sun will not be able to lay down his troubles. Has this esteemed soul truly strayed from the path of light, as what Judgment Knight believes, or is this perhaps a baseless rumor? Sun cannot bear to even entertain the thought that anyone can believe such a thing to be possible. How can our honorable ruler partake in something as base as torture? Preposterous."

The royal knights behind us, including those in Roland's squad, began to murmur.

The prince frowned even harder and snapped, "You dare accuse your king of such a thing? Though you may be the Sun Knight, you are still stepping out of line!"

I wanted to laugh again but held back the urge. _Since when did I even mention the king?_ I only said "ruler," which could mean a lot of people, the prince included, but of course right when I said that in conjunction with "torture," everyone's thoughts jumped right to the king, as who else would be foolish and repulsive enough to do such a thing?

I shook my head and took the opening he gave me. "Your Highness, Sun means no such thing. Sun only wishes to clear His Majesty's name and put an end to these baseless rumors once and for all."

Judgment actually gave a "hmph" and cut in, saying, "Sun Knight means no such thing, but I certainly do. Though you may be the prince, and your father the king, you and your father are still not exempt from justice. Move aside, Your Highness."

 _Ohhh, burn. That last "your Highness" was oozing with sarcasm. You totally nailed it, Judgment!_

The prince pursed his lips but couldn't refute Judgment's words.

"Your Highness, Sun will accompany Judgment Knight, so please feel at ease," I said to persuade him.

"The royal family will not forget this transgression, Sun Knight," the prince said with narrowed eyes. "Come. Let me witness this 'justice' you speak of."

 _Ah. The prince is sharp indeed, earlier misstep aside. How did that fat pig king come to have such a smart, devoted son?_ Sometimes, I really wondered if they were even father and son. _I mean, look at the prince! He's quite tall and has a refined appearance. He and his father look nothing alike, and their personalities are also eons apart. Either the prince and the princess both take after the queen, or the queen had a grand time with someone else. I mean, who would blame her, when her husband is such a deplorable excuse for a human being?_

While the entire continent knew that the Sun Knight and the Judgment Knight never got along, and the prince therefore believed the same, he also, unfortunately, knew whenever I was up to no good.

Drat, I had hoped to get one over him, but no matter. We had already gotten this far.

He waved us in.

* * *

We searched room by room, even though I already had in mind one particular room. However, there was no possible way the prince would let us search that room right away. We would just have to keep being "thorough" to make it less obvious. _I don't believe you can stop us after that!_

We even searched the prince's room under his gaze and came up with nothing, which was actually relieving. If even our future ruler was rotten, then there was no saving the royal family.

The princess's room was similarly searched. Through my sensing ability, I discovered that she had a trap door hidden inside her walk-in closet that led down to a secret passage underneath her room, but as it had little to do with our investigation, I did not bring it up.

Finally, we came to the king's room. A quick sensing told me that this was indeed the room in question, the one with the odd hidden chamber I was unable to see the inside of. Whether or not our plan came to fruition would depend on what we found in that secret room.

 _How I wish to be wrong about what we may find._

The prince stepped in front of us and gave us a stern look, but Judgment just glared at him. _Are you trying to compete with Judgment's glares? Dream on!_

I shared a look with Judgment. It was time to put an end to this.

"Judgment Knight, it is still not too late to turn back," I said.

Judgment shook his head and commanded Roland's subordinate, Foot, to knock on the door.

The young royal knight rushed to do just that. He knocked lightly at first, before pounding much harder. Even the prince didn't stop him, though I could see the prince gripping his elbow. The prince was no idiot. By now, he must have realized our true intentions, and somewhere inside of him, he must have the same doubts as us. If not, surely he would have declared his father innocent. But the word "innocent" had very little to do with the king.

With no response from within, Judgment barked, "Open the door."

Foot flinched but followed his orders. The door was, of course, locked. He turned to look toward Judgment for instruction, who glowered at him. Between facing Judgment's wrath and the king's ire, Judgment was obviously scarier. Besides, his captain's safety was in question. Just as I was wondering how Foot would open the door, he lived up to his namesake and let his foot fly out, kicking the door open.

Blaze would have been proud.

I had to give it to Foot, a royal knight who had just dared to kick the king's door open. Next to us, the prince held his head.

Without further ado, we headed inside.

Within, the king was standing in front of the full length mirror I had sensed before and even had a hand on it. He seemed to be staring blankly into the mirror. _Come on, no matter how much you look in the mirror, you'll only see a fat pig staring back._ If I were him, I wouldn't want any mirrors in my room.

 _Don't tell me he was so mesmerized by his own ugly mug that he didn't hear our knocking?_

It wasn't until we came closer that he suddenly jumped, as if he had been broken out of a spell. He spun around, eyes darting wildly at us, like a cornered animal. He quickly moved in front of the mirror. He was really making it super obvious and wasn't acting like a king at all.

 _Guilty. So, so guilty._

"What is the meaning of this?" the king demanded, but his voice came out more like a squawk.

"The God of Light bids us to—" I began to explain, but Judgment interrupted nicely, saving me from wasting my breath.

"We have reason to believe that there are nefarious acts going on in the royal quarters. Step aside and let us investigate, and we shall put these suspicions to rest once and for all," Judgment said.

The king paled at his words. "Son, guards, send them away! I am the king. You can't investigate my room like this."

The prince came over to his father's side. He shook his head and said, "The Judgment Knight is the highest authority presiding over justice. We can't stop him from investigating any leads he has." _Hah, exactly. Public relations between the palace and the Church saved your skin thus far, but even this goodwill has stretched thin._ "But rest assured Father, if they turn up nothing in this investigation, I will count this as an affront against the royal family from the Church of the God of Light. I will not forget it so easily, Sun Knight."

 _Hey, why aren't you blaming Judgment? Why single me out?_

As I had thought, the prince was too shrewd. Whether or not Judgment was acting on his own didn't matter to him. He would still count it against the entirety of the Church of the God of Light, or would demand for me to compensate for my subordinate's transgressions.

 _Tough luck there, Your Highness. I have an entire palace as my witness. Judgment is only doing his job. Whatever compensation you demand can only be superficial._

Besides, our public act also served another purpose—he couldn't sweep this under the rug and pretend not to know about it.

Despite what the prince had said, the expression on his face was a troubled one. Even though he stood next to his father's side to support him, and had warned us that the royal family wouldn't forget or forgive us so easily, he clearly had his doubts too, wishing that his father would not disappoint him, yet afraid that he would.

After all, there were too many rumors for all of them to be false.

"Search the room. Leave no nook or cranny alone," Judgment commanded.

"Yes sir!"

The royal knights scattered to search the room. After all the rooms we had searched together, they had gotten it down pat, and no longer did anyone freeze at getting commanded by _the_ Judgment Knight. They turned over all the pottery, opened all the marble cabinets, and searched under all the rugs. However, no one had gone to search the full length mirror by the wall, as the king was still standing in front of it to block it. I shared a glance with Judgment and flicked my eyes at that particular wall.

He gave me an almost imperceptible nod and barked at the royal knights, "You there, search that wall."

Foot jumped but still moved over and began feeling his way around the wall.

"What insolence!" the king suddenly screeched. "What gives you the right to accuse me like a criminal in my very own room? Out! All of you, out!"

 _Bingo. There must be something behind this wall you don't wish us to see._

Judgment merely raised an eyebrow at the king's screeching.

"Enough," the prince said with a frown. "You are upsetting my father, your king. You give too little trust to him."

I nearly wanted to snort in laughter, but I turned and coughed into my glove instead. _Your Highness, have we ever been given a reason to trust your father? That our kingdom is still standing is already a blessing in and of itself._

Judgment gestured at the mirror and said to the prince, "Shall we find out if that trust is deserved?" He then turned and commanded the knights, "Remove the mirror."

All color vanished from the king's face. "No... you can't. You can't! You can't do this! I am your king!"

No one paid him any attention.

 _A king is a king through his actions. Shouting your title at someone to make them acknowledge you just shows your incompetence. How would anyone be willing to swear their loyalty to someone like you?_

Although these thoughts ran through my mind, my eyes were trained on the mirror. _Just what will we find beyond this mirror? Is Roland truly confined within?_

As I watched, the king suddenly turned and hugged the mirror. "No, no, no! You can't do this! You can't!"

 _This... this is just unsightly. How desperate can you get? Have you no dignity at all?_

I shared another look with Judgment.

"Father, let them investigate. They won't find anything, will they?" asked the prince, who placed a hand on his father's shoulder and gently guided him away from the mirror. Perhaps he couldn't bear to watch his father act in such a way anymore.

The king's hand lingered on the mirror, but he let his son lead him away, his body shaking with each step.

Neither Judgment nor I made any comment over the king's behavior. Judgment just ordered once again, "Remove the mirror."

With the king now out of the way, Foot and the others followed Judgment's orders and began removing the mirror, revealing the hidden room behind it.

Any words I might have spoken died before they could form.

We all stood, shocked to our core, staring at what was revealed.

How could anyone be so cruel?

* * *

When I finally found my voice, I whispered, "Is this the pride of the royal family? Is it?"

The prince didn't respond. The king fell to his knees, holding his head with his hands, a string of "no, no, no" tumbling endlessly out of his damn mouth. I pushed past the prince, meeting no resistance. I felt no joy at my suspicions getting proven true.

I shouldn't have even given them any courtesy. I should have just blasted that trap door apart, consequences be damned. But I had to do this with witnesses, to make sure that we could hold him accountable, but damn it all. Just damn it!

"Father..." The prince whispered in a strangled voice, yet it still echoed in the room, enough to reach my ears. "How could you?"

I wanted to ask the same. How could anyone be so cruel? How could this have been happening under our noses? If Roland hadn't taken notice of the maids, how long would we have let it go on? How many more people would have gotten hurt?

For once, I thought I might take a page out of Judgment's book and rush to the toilet near the Judge's Complex and throw up all that I had eaten today. But that particular toilet was much too far, and I would pass through too many corridors before I could reach the sanctuary, so it definitely wasn't an option.

Besides, I was needed here.

Why did I, Grisia Sun, who has never flinched at the sight of criminals getting flayed, felt the need to copy Judgment?

The room I had stepped into could barely be called that. It reeked of blood, so much that it was suffocating. Someone behind us actually began retching. It wasn't Foot though, as he was the one who gasped, "C-Captain...?"

There, inside the hidden chamber, strapped to the wooden bed with nails hammered into his arms and hands, dried blood caking his skin, was Roland.

Roland, who had been hale just the other day. Yet now...

Were we too late? Had I wasted too much time finding a way to arrest the king in daylight?

There—it was almost impossible to tell, but his chest had risen a tiny bit. He was still breathing. I shook myself out of my stupor and rushed forward.

"Roland! Don't you dare die on me!" I shouted. _Don't you dare!_ "Ultimate Heal!"

Though I tried, no magic gathered to form the crucial healing spell that could mean life or death for Roland.

"What...?"

I tried again, this time calling out, "Minor Heal!"

Still, nothing happened.

Not giving a damn that our audience might think it weird that the Sun Knight knew other magic, when Roland was quite literally on his deathbed, I called out, "Wind Blade!"

No breeze blew through the room.

 _Are you freaking kidding me? Roland is dying here, and I can't do anything?_

Judgment was more clear-headed than me, barking at the royal knights to remove Roland from the chamber. _Right, we should get him out of here._

It had to be this chamber, after all. The chamber itself must be blocking me from gathering the elements, just like how it was shrouded from my sensing.

Several royal knights moved forward as commanded, their faces green. All they had at hand were their swords, which proved fine for cutting through the belts, but were much too large for removing the rusty nails. While they were still at a loss as to how to proceed, I could not bear to watch any longer, moving forward to snatch a pair of pliers off of the wall. There was no time to waste here.

All sorts of tools lined the walls. They were obviously all torture devices, polished until they were sparkling clean, even though they must have been used to render Roland into such a state, with bruises, cuts, and burns spanning across his skin, his clothes ripped and stained beyond salvation. Torture devices or not, whatever we had at hand, I would use.

The royal knights followed my lead, grimly grabbing those distasteful tools that hung lovingly on the wall in display of the king's disgusting hobby.

As we pried the nails out of the bed one rusty nail at a time, Roland grunted from the pain.

 _Good, if you can still make noise, you can get through this. Hang in there, Roland. I won't let you die on this stupid wooden bed hidden away in this perverse pig of a king's torture chamber._

The nails were only partially out, but that would have to be good enough, as long as he could be moved. Judgment even had us move aside. He bent down to scoop Roland up himself, careful not to jostle him too much, but Roland still curled up in pain.

The moment Judgment stepped through the threshold, I called out once again, "Ultimate Heal!"

I poured everything I had into the healing spell, practically blinding myself with how bright the room abruptly became. Holy element rushed in to answer my command all at once, enveloping Roland in its embrace.

It was too early to feel relief, but I could feel my eyes stinging.

 _It's working. I can gather magic out here. I can save him._

I kept the spell going.

 _There's no way I'd let you die like this, Roland. We've barely reunited. We haven't even spoken a word to each other after all these years. Laughing at me from afar doesn't count!_

I clenched my teeth and barged on.

 _Roland, don't you know? You're my very first friend._

The selections had been fun, thanks to Roland. He had been such a serious kid and rarely smiled, but that made the chuckles I got out of him all the more rewarding. Us orphans should stick together, I had told him. We had none of the fancy clothes or armor that the other candidates had, but what did it matter? We had each other, and that was what I wanted the most from joining the Twelve Holy Knights. Family. Brothers. I had wanted Roland to be part of that, too.

Judgment gently placed Roland down on the plush carpet, so that I could heal him more easily.

 _Damn it. Why are you making me remember all of this, Roland? Why were you so foolishly righteous that you stuck your nose in business way over your head?_

As the holy element surged around us, I could not help recalling Roland and me so many years ago, when he had spoken of a future where he and I would both be part of the Holy Temple. Even if I did not become a knight, I could become a cleric and heal his injuries. We had all thought he would get chosen as the Sun Knight and that I would have no chance at all, yet somehow, I was the one who had gotten chosen, and Roland had then vanished from my life.

I hadn't become a cleric, but by the God of Light, I was going to heal every single injury on Roland's body!

 _I'm not allowing you to kick the bucket! We're not friends anymore if you do that!_

I hadn't even said sorry.

 _By the God of Light, Roland, I_ want _you back in my life._

There was still no indication of Roland getting better.

 _Roland, don't you dare die. If you do, you bet I'm going to drag you back to the living!_

As holy light continued to pour out of me, Roland's skin finally began to heal, but it was closing around the remaining nails that were still stuck in his flesh.

"Judg—"

Before I could even finish uttering his name, Judgment bent down and began the gruesome task of removing the nails that had hammered Roland into that awful wooden bed. It would not do to have his flesh heal over the rusty nails.

His ashen complexion made him look just like a corpse, so much that I doubted all the holy light I poured into him was doing any good. But he was still alive. I refused to believe otherwise. If he were dead, the dark element would corrode his body, and there was simply no sign of that at all.

 _God of Light, please... please lend your encompassing favor to Grisia today..._

"Ultimate Heal!" I uttered once more, even though I was already past my limit. "Roland, don't you dare die on me!"

Black spots dappled my vision, so much that I almost didn't notice when his eyes finally, _finally_ , fluttered open.

A voice rasped out, "Grisha?"

That he could still recognize me even in such a state relieved many of my worries, even while his slurred speech sparked a new one.

But. He was not beyond saving. I hadn't been too late.

"Roland... welcome back," I whispered. _Welcome back..._

Then, blackness took over.

* * *

When I next woke up, I was in my own bed. I still felt tired, but not to the point that I would faint again. I turned, not surprised that my good friend Judgment was sitting to the side of my bed with some paperwork on his lap.

"You're up," he said, moving the paperwork aside. "The Pope said you exhausted your magic."

As always, such a dependable tapeworm, answering my question before I even had to ask. _Now, if only you could keep on explaining stuff without needing my input!_

"Roland?" I rasped out. _Ugh, how is this the same voice that sang in front of so many people the other day? All of our followers would desert the Church of the God of Light if this is what they got!_

Judgment handed me a glass of water and helped me up. As I drank greedily, he said, "The Pope and the bishops have been seeing him. He will recover."

 _Damn, his condition is so serious that even the Pope and the bishops have to step in?_

Still, I gave a nod and leaned back, closing my eyes in relief. I hadn't been too late, even though Roland had looked like a corpse. I had almost thought that I would need to use Resurrection on him or something, but that was not a spell that I knew.

Sure, I could rush off and study it right away, but no matter how good I was at absorbing magic like a sponge, there was no guarantee that I could learn it just like that. Besides, it wasn't like I could use Roland as my first test subject. What if he came back wrong, with wings or horns or something? What if he became even more of a sword idiot, or so incurably serious that he never smiled or laughed?

My hesitancy at reconnecting had almost cost him his life. Healing spells could patch him up, but it wasn't like they could replenish all the lost blood, or wipe the trauma from his mind. Some scars were the kind that simply never went away.

I hadn't even been able to cast any healing spells to begin the healing process for him until we were out of the torture chamber.

Now, I finally understood the ten percent of uncertainty I had felt. My suspicions hadn't just been paranoia.

I opened my eyes and caught Judgment's gaze.

"Judgment, the room blocked my magic," I told him. "The king isn't smart enough to set something like that up."

"The king's behavior in front of the mirror was strange as well," Judgment continued on from my observation, unsurprised by what I had brought up.

I nodded and said, "He totally seemed like he was about to piss himself when he realized we were there, but that inattentiveness before that? There's no way he couldn't have heard us knock, yet he just kept stupidly staring into the mirror."

"My platoon is investigating the mirror as we speak," Judgment said. "There's another party involved, isn't there?"

I nodded. I hated that I didn't know _who_ it was. Was it one of the palace mages? Or was it someone else? I knew _too_ little. Whoever the other person was, they were unquestionably guilty, and I would never forgive them.

Judgment gave a nod in response, and said, "From my initial interrogation, the king appears to be completely unaware that there was a third party who tampered with the room and his mind."

"Just how stupid can he get?" I asked in disbelief.

Seriously. It didn't matter that there was some unknown person out there who had manipulated him. The king was just as guilty for his nasty hobby and his utter _stupidity._

Judgment wasn't done with the bad news. He continued on to say, "I should also let you know that the bishops reported that there are signs of injuries on Roland that were healed over several times, including bones that weren't set quite right."

My first thought was that I had put Roland back together _wrong_ , until I realized what Judgment was implying. "You're saying that...?"

Judgment gave a grim nod. "He was tortured and healed, then tortured and healed again, several times over."

I clenched my fists so hard that my nails dug into my skin. With a cold voice, I said, "Lock him up. King or not, tricked or not, lock that damn bastard up. We won't let the other one escape either."

"Even the king isn't above the law," Judgment agreed. "This will pit us against the royal family."

I nodded and said, "There will be plenty of people out there who will think the Church of the God of Light is trying to seize power, but there will also be plenty of people awed by our unwavering stance on justice, and the rest of the nobles will think twice before they try to step out of line after this. Furthermore, the maids and the royal knights, though not of high status, will be grateful and feel that they matter. We will have their support. There _is_ power in numbers."

I turned and smirked at Judgment. "Besides, what better way to send a message to that third party? If even the king cannot escape from justice, then what chance does that person have?"

* * *

I sat by the fountain side, listening to the spray of water behind me.

The prince, though frustrated by our audacity, knew he had no room to fault us, not when his father had done something so deplorable, and when we had actually, in some ways, saved his father too.

Storm had rounded up a startling number of maids to give testimony about their torture over the years, many shaking too much to complete their testimony, often only able to continue thanks to Storm's gentle encouragement.

It was the scandal of the century, with the final nail in the coffin delivered by Roland, who showed up to share what had happened to him while he was still limping and all bandaged up. If that wasn't enough, the indignant royal knights who had been part of Roland's rescue had plenty to say, too.

Needless to say, the king stood no chance against the overwhelming evidence. All in all, his sentence was a light one, in consideration of the third party's involvement, and a courtesy to the prince, whom we could not completely alienate.

The king, after the Pope checked his mind, was deemed unfit to rule. His actions may have been exacerbated due to hypnotism, but they were still his own. Apparently, the tampering of his mind could only have been recent, or else he would have turned into an invalid by now. The many years of torture of the palace servants were all him and no one else's fault. It was just that someone had recently taken notice of his disgusting hobby and taken advantage of it, but the purpose behind it was still a mystery.

The king's sentence was immediate abdication of his throne, monetary compensation to all his victims, and confinement to the "jail cells," punishment and forced recovery at the same time. We could not let him be accessible to whoever was still out there. The prince, ever soft-hearted toward his despicable father, furnished his father's jail cell with more luxury than he deserved.

The prince, whose coronation was soon to happen, then shocked me by announcing his intent to take Roland as his knight-confidant. In other words, Roland was getting promoted, even though what he was getting promoted for was dealing a huge blow to the prince's own family.

How magnanimous of the prince, exactly what he'd want everyone to think.

Sure, even the prince couldn't deny the excellent work Roland had done in exposing the injustice happening in the palace, and, as a by-product, helping his father break free of some unknown person's manipulations. But Roland will also always be that person who landed the prince's own father in a jail cell.

As I always said, the prince was shrewd. He knew the appointment would earn him good publicity, and he needed all the help he could get in that department after all that had gone down. I would worry for Roland's safety, but this had become such a public affair that if anything were to happen to Roland again, the royal family would be the first to fall under suspicion.

In other words, there was no safer position for Roland than at the prince's right hand side, even if the prince resented him. Roland, once he recovered, immediately jumped straight back into work, joining the investigation searching for the third party who had tampered with the king's mind.

He was such a terrible workaholic that I wondered if he or Storm would be the first to keel over from overwork.

Here before me was a case in point. He could very well have organized for other squads to patrol this month, as his health was not the best and he had other investigative work to do—yet here he was, on his usual patrols.

The group of royal knights I had roped in as witnesses were passing through the plaza, as they always did. At the head of the group was Roland, who had given me much too big of a scare, and his subordinates dearly agreed with me. Foot was practically stuck to Roland like glue, eyes following him everywhere, afraid that his captain would vanish without a trace once more. After what had happened, I had no doubt that they would suspect any mention of Roland ever going on a "mission" again.

 _Good, keep a close eye on him!_

Roland was no longer limping. I was glad to see that his limp wasn't permanent. His complexion was also much healthier, though he still had patches of discolored skin from his burns and where his skin had been peeled off. Even the best healing spells could not expedite his recovery more than this.

I stood up and brushed myself off, intent on returning to the Holy Temple now that I had ascertained for myself his health once again. Tomorrow, I would return.

But as I turned, I heard Foot's questioning voice at the same time as footsteps approached me. I glanced over, only to see that Roland had broken away from the rest.

 _Hey hey, now you're coming over to check on me when you didn't do so at the dessert shop? What gives?!_

He came up to me and said with a smile, "It really is you. Grisia, you're the same as always, lost in your thoughts while sitting down."

Hearing his voice alleviated another of my worries. He was able to pronounce my name now, when he had only been able to slur it back in the king's room. I found out later that the effing king had actually sliced Roland's tongue and could very well have taken his speech from him altogether if we had found him any later.

"I'm not sitting right now," I said, our conversation so normal that it was like it hadn't been years and too many hardships since we had last spoken, and no, calling my name didn't count.

Damn, now that I was face-to-face with him, it was so obvious how much taller he had grown since we were kids. I mean, I had seen even from afar that he had grown much taller than before, but having him before me was an entirely different experience, so much that I felt momentarily off-kilter as my mind tried to meld the visage of the man before me with the boy who had been my first friend.

Still, I took the sight in, preferring this much better than the one of him lying lifeless on that hideous wooden bed.

"You were earlier," he said with a shrug, his gaze drawn to a trail of ants marching along the crack in the cobblestone by our feet.

There were tons of things I could have said to him. Did he hate me? Did he still yearn to be the Sun Knight? Was he _okay_? Even though it was such a sunny day, just watching him stare at those stupid ants was making me shiver. I dearly hoped that the sight of the ants was not sending him back to that room, where he had gotten sugar water dribbled over him so that ants would swarm to him.

I had not been able to spare him from all of that.

There were so many things I could have said, but all I said was, "Roland, even though I didn't become a cleric, I'm glad I was still able to heal your injuries."

 _I'm glad I was able to provide you with some relief._

It really wasn't enough, but at least it was _something_.

Roland had had a strange look on his face that day he passed by the dessert shop and saw me in line. I had thought it to be amusement, but now that he was actually before me, I realized it wasn't that.

It was... a fond look, as if he'd missed those times he had lined up for me, as if he'd missed... me. Just like how I missed him.

"You sure did," he murmured, breaking his gaze from the trail of ants.

Then, he looked up and smiled at me with that fond look on his face, and I knew he would be fine.

Though he had walked away that day without even glancing back at me, though I had almost been too late, I hadn't been, and he had returned after all.

It was going to take time, but he was going to be fine.

I would make sure of it.

I smiled back at him and said, "Roland, did you know that the shop we used to go to has gotten even more popular? They have some new flavors now, too! Let's go buy some lollipops!"

"But, I'm still in the middle of patrolling..." Roland began to say with a frown, ever so dutiful. However, Foot came to save the day, pushing his captain along and even giving me a thumbs up that I didn't quite know how to respond to. _He's sure grown confident!_

I suppose after getting pushed around by Judgment, nothing could scare him anymore, and certainly not the shiny Sun Knight hiding under a cloak, if he has even realized who I am. Perhaps he even felt some camaraderie with me because of how we had saved his captain together.

In any case, Roland and I walked together to the dessert shop, just like what we used to do all those years ago when we were but children eager to buy some candy. Later, we would continue to search for that third party, but for now, all I wanted was to share this time with Roland.

As I chattered on about all the flavors he could choose from, even though blueberry was clearly the best, I caught him gazing at me with that look again.

I rolled my eyes and nudged him with my elbow, glad that he was close enough for me to do so, instead of separated by a sea of people, or even worse, gone from my life.

Really, _I_ should be the one looking at him with sentimentality.

"Hey," I said when I had his attention. "I'm so glad that you're here."

* * *

Off in a pink house a distance away from the better part of the city, an undead necromancer lazily unwrapped the large, strawberry lollipop she had been saving. She kicked her feet back and forth as she licked the lollipop.

"Darn that Sun for ruining my plans," she said with a pout. She had worked so hard to hypnotize the king so that he would torture Roland endlessly, to the point that he would die with burning hatred and regret. Only then could she turn him into a death knight, an existence that no one could touch. She had to cut her losses when Sun stormed through the palace and created such a huge commotion. There was no way she could still manipulate the king from the shadows after that.

All that hard work for nothing! She wasn't going to forgive Sun even though he always brought her lollipops. But then, she took another lick and thought of something.

"Roland as the knight-confidant to the newly crowned king? It's not as good as having him become the Sun Knight or a death knight, but I can work with that."

She stuck the lollipop in her mouth and grinned.

In fact, she should probably thank Sun for getting her child into such an influential position. She couldn't have planned it better herself.

* * *

the end

 **A/N:** Here's a mammoth! I never thought this response would turn out so long. I was just trying to write Roland "returning." It turned into a huge AU of pre-canon events, which ran fairly close to canon, but hopefully also brought some new stuff to the table.

So yeah, Roland is a knight-confidant now, whoot! He's high up over there with the royal knights, kind of taking Elijah's spot? Maybe this means Elijah would eventually return to being the Hell Knight. I don't really know, haha.

Thanks for reading. Would love to know what you thought!


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